And what, precisely, does a journalism qualification actually bestow upon someone?
It’s obviously not logical thinking or the ability to understand what scientists are saying. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with holding power to account either and, at the end of the day, anybody who’s been to school knows how to write an essay.
Are you saying the Sunday papers are scared and lack confidence, they are the ones printing the facts. Expect Labour to drop even further once everyone realises that they have no chance.
Labour is in an insidious position with friends and foes unfairly undermining its leader and party, left, right and centre and stupidly talking up National at the same time, in spite of Cunliffe running a great campaign and Labour having such excellent policies! What the hell is wrong with the MSM and so many people?
@clemgeopin
Todays Rod Oram has a good summary of Labour’s economic policies versus Nats in the SST, and it clearly shows why Labour’s polices are far superior. It makes me wonder why so few of our media can see what Oram clearly explains. I suspect that National’s concerted #dirty politics campaign over the last 6 years combined with the ABC cabal has wrecked labour for this election, which is why they are struggling. Also National have done a good job of lying to people about the state of the economy, if I think one area where labour strategyin thi election is wrong is they should have attacked National harder around their Economic Management, Labour needed to highlight if you backed out ChCh$40b insurance proceeds and last years dairy proceeds anomaly (both wont exist in the next 2 to 3 years) from GDP we would have had zero growth. One thing is for sure, who ever wins next weekend will have their work cut out for them in the next 3 years, they are going to be tough.
SST hot on mccullum wanting to suppress their article… When they have material from whaledump AND no crowing about their win over slater trying to stop them publishing
So on this poll how many list mps make it back in? Losing Parker, Adern and Little will be very damaging for Labour. Greens the party of opposition I see in the future. And the next Government after this National one.
With Labour at 22.4%, I’m left to wonder how they could have got it so wrong this year. At this % some big names are not going to make it back in. A cleanout might be good, but not an enforced one.
They didn’t get it wrong this year, at least if you mean they did something.
The got it wrong about this time last year when they elected David Cunliffe as leader. Why didn’t Grant get the job?
As you say a cleanout might be good but that isn’t what is going to happen. On the latest poll numbers the Labour Party is going to comprise a bunch of members who go back to last century. A cleanout would get rid of people like Goff, Mallard and King.
It is precisely this indecisive hick hack with some good old backstabbing that is costing labor. None of the voters are interested in this yesteryear Maldoon methods. You just have to blame yourself.
2017 will be a contest between National and the Greens. The Greens won’t be just after the party vote next time they will be out to win seats, and they will be contesting hard in any by-elections of Labour held seats, as Labour tries to rejuvenate their line up.
12 months ago no one could believe Labour’s result would have a two in front of it, now the question is will it have a one and will it be bigger than the Greens?
[lprent: You will have to improve your comments or I’ll ban you as a mindless troll. Maniacal laughing is a sign of boring pointless abuse as far as I’m concerned ]
whohaa, a sentence, hallelujah. If you laugh about something please have us anticipating what is it that is so amusing. Some might have a different point of view, some might be laughing with you and a genuine punter might evolve. 🙂
Party Vote percentages are only based on eligible and decided voters. Respondents who are undecided, do not intend to vote or are ineligible to do so are excluded from the Party Vote.
Biased polling, can’t even report what percentage of people aren’t decided voters.
They did manage to point out that their interpration of results is based on the smaller parties keeping their existing seats.
Today’s must read: Looking at similar NSA documents, the information Key wants to release is likely classified SECRET or TOP SECRET. That means its release would cause “serious” or “exceptionally grave” damage to security or intelligence operations (see p. 55 – 58). You and I may not agree with those operations, or their idea of “national security”, but Key and the GCSB supposedly do – and those concerns don’t disappear simply because the PM decides it would be politically useful to release. Unless of course in their eyes, “national security” means “National’s security”.
Were you one of those who complained about a Nanny State because of lightbulbs and school tuck shop food?
So what’s your view on a surveillance state?
The hypocrisy is unbelievable,
But we have Key going on and on about “I won’t talk about security matters.” Or “It’s not in the public interest” But now that it’s in His interest. The Liar in Chief will even throw the countries security out the window, just to try and prove a point. That alone shows what contempt he holds ordinary Kiwi’s in.
Corruption case to answer and a police investigation must be ordered by the opposition, here are some facts.
A simple search last night of “Polls can be manipulated” – Google
found about 1,400,000 results.
Below leaves us all now with the knowledge of what in New Zealand is actually going on, it is more corruption of our MSM conducting manipulated polling results, and opposition now must call this as it is, corruption of the MSM and manipulation of all polls.
We were contacted Friday 22nd of August at 4pm by Herald Digipoll by a lady who first said we are conducting a poll and could we participate?
We said yes, then she said my supervisor is listening in, is that o/k?
I hesitated but agreed and she went through a ten minute questioning, and then abruptly said we don’t need your input thanks, and hung up!
This left us so disturbed we searched the web and found all 1.4 million cases of poll manipulations globally on Goggle, which include what is called “selective polling”
We believe we were a victim of a Herald Digipoll selective polling strategy.
NZ pols are corrupted, is this a crime?
This is just one case of the 1.4 million sites on Goggle in India which may show what is happening here in NZ.
quote;
New Delhi: Public opinion gathered by leading opinion poll agencies is often tweaked to give misleading results, Operation Prime Minister, a sting operation by a private news network, News Express, has revealed Tuesday. Well-known faces from leading opinion poll agencies have been caught on hidden camera agreeing to such malpractices.
Operation Prime Minister shows how opinion polls are conducted and manipulated at the instance of political parties, their results traded to show a particular party in a favourable position, for a price. Presenting snippets from the sting operation at a press conference, Editor-in-chief of News Express, Vinod Kapri said, “Our motivation behind conducting the sting operation was a letter written by the Election Commission of India to all regional and national parties inviting their views on the publication of opinion polls.
We wanted to investigate the concerns of the Commission.” In its letter dated 4 Oct, 2013, the Election Commission had said, “The Commission has been suggesting to the government that there should be a similar prohibition or restriction on opinion polls also as there could be several manipulated opinion polls which could impact the voting pattern.”
Another motivation behind the sting operation was the mushrooming of opinion polls. “There used to be one or two opinion polls every election. But now, one sees an opinion poll almost every week. Which leads us to the question- how is the data generated so quickly and processed,” said Kapri.
“Operation Prime Minister has exposed eleven opinion poll agencies, whose surveys are published in leading newspapers and magazines besides being broadcast by leading news channels”, it was claimed in the sting opertaion.
It demonstrates how the 810 million voters of our country are duped into believing trends or waves that are manipulated. – See more at:
“Opinion polls seem to have become the latest weapon in the poll campaign.
For a price, the prediction of seats tally can be changed to suit the interests of political parties.
The agencies have no qualms accepting even black money for this purpose”,
News Express claimed. The influence of opinion poll agencies goes beyond mere opinion polls. In some cases, the poll agencies have claimed they can even prop up dummy candidates in the constituencies where the rival candidate is on a strong wicket.
It has also been claimed that some leading editors are hand in glove with these poll agencies.
This is just a few of the 1.4 million sites on Goggle. – See more at:
+100 disturbed …right wing managed PR polls are the arse end of the dog influencing voter perceptions, discouraging people from genuinely voting and corrupting democracy
While looking at figures of the 2011 election I was a bit disheartened by the large National majorities and the smaller Labour majorities until I realized that the so called left vote was often split between Green and Labour.
It does seem to me that party votes and list MPs aside, in some electorates the right wing candidate often slips in between a divided left.
I know some young people who give their electorate vote to a green candidate and their party vote to Labour. They don’t realize that while their party votes are effectual their electorate votes are ineffectual in the immediate election.
I also know of some farm workers who lean to the left but because they live in farmer dominated (National) electorates they believe they can have no influence so don’t bother voting at all, not yet understanding the importance of the party vote.
1.In Waitakere, Bennet with her majority of 9 would have been defeated if just 10 more voters had chosen Sepuloni.
3.In Tamaki Rukaurau 10,592 voted against ,Sharples and 7,120 voted for Sharples. The split ’left’ vote allowed him to win and support National.
4.In Ikaroa- Rawhiti , Labour’s Horomia romped in with a 6541 majority as apart from Mana’s 2484 votes, the left vote was not divided
5.In Te Tai Hauauru the combined vote of Mana, GP and Labour was 8732 and
Turia Tariana got 8433.
6. In Te Tai Tokerau where the vote wasn’t split Kelvin Davis wasn’t far behind the smallish 1165 majority of Hone Pani Tamati Waka Nene Harawira . (What a magnificent name)
7.In Te Tai Tonga there was a similar smallish majority (1475) for Labour’s Tirikatene and the yet Mana+GP vote was 3906.
8.Waiariki -10123 combined votes of the two purportedly left parties, Mana and Labour were more than Flavell’s 7651.
9.In Coromandel the Nat majority was 12,740 but the combined ‘left’ vote of Green and Labour, nearly 11,500 was hopelessly split at 5000+each.
10.In Ohariu Dunne got 14,357. The Labour and GP vote combined was 15,125.
11.In Waimakariri Cosgrove was beaten by Kate Wilkinson by 642 votes. The GP votes plus Labour votes were 17,342, Wilkinson’s 16,787.
12.In Christchurch Central, Wagner’s majority over Labour’s Brendon Burns was just 47 (yes 47) .Over 2000 went to the GP. (Incidentally ACT got a massive 110).
13. In Epsom it is transparently obvious that if Greens and Labour had voted strategically and voted National, their combined votes( 5991)would have obliterated John Banks false majority of 2261 and we’d never have seen a charter school. I agree that for left leaning people, doing this would probably be too hard to stomach. Dunno if I could do it.
There is also the other elephant.: the thousands and thousands who didn’t vote at all in 2011.
What can be done? Me.. I’ll be door knocking on the day.
If I were running a black ops rainbow alliance election campaign, I’d have adverts on TV promoting tactical voting.
DC appearing in turn with other opposition party leaders, having a cup of tea with them and the nation.
Party vote for either of us, but to get rid of the electorate nat mp or stop act and dunne etc… Vote for this candidate and so on until the message sinks home.
But I’m not running a campaign, so don’t hold your breath.
All it shows is that Maori parties of what ever hue are right leaning, always were. So lets be clear here. If Maori vote right then they have to live with the policies.
For treaty settlements, Maori have done better under National. As far as social policy, labour started well, but then has been slowly down hill. Not to mention the backstabbing by the last labour government. So on balance, both have been as bad as each other – why do you think a majority of maori have gone with NZfirst, the greens, maori party or Mana. The major parties have been, well, bloody awful.
Are you sure about that? Isn’t is a publicity stunt? Labor had also a plan to have all settlements arranged by a certain date. But it wouldn’t have included selling assets that all NZlanders have paid for. Social policy under National certainly is not a highlight given the proportion of Maori and pacific people showing in the statistics of the poorest in the Nation. What it also shows however is, that to my biggest disappointment, the Maori tribal hierarchy is worse than whites. How else can one explain that after decades of multimillion dollar payouts nothing has trickled down? So really there it is the meeting of the minds of the far right and Maoridom.
How can you say Iwi leadership is worse than whites – when the dominant ideological framework is white? How much of Paul Henry are you watching? And why you tethered to an outdated economic concept like trickle down theory?
Or do you want to talk about the Tainui settlement, the land and money – oh wait just under 1% of what was taken and they have your expectation to solve all the problems, with getting less than 1% of what was stolen back. Lets go positive shall we. Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, have done well getting back a mere fraction of a percent of everything taken. Like having the most PHD’s of any Iwi, Yes – they pay fee’s – School support programmes to clothe, feed and provided supplies for all the tamariki. Massive investment into Christchurch after the earthquakes – especially housing.
OK not all good news, the virtual slave labour on board the sealord fleet is a bloody disgrace. But wait, the Iwi leadership is being held to account on that one.
Then why is it that the majority of poverty is in Maori households? Hasn’t the main argument been that the money that was paid back is to be used for an economic base for Maoridom? Decades later and nothing has changed. Sorry, but I am not falling for the political correctness that does not allow a voice of dissent in such matters. And do you mean that Iwi leadership is above reproach and all whites are bad? The framework is surely not white – I can 100%, what do I say 1000% reassure you. Too many people I know have to stay in line or are excluded on the base of race – and this means they are white or asian. All I see is a distribution of wealth within the Maori hierarchy that leaves the National Party with their policies in the dust. Sorry, but someone has to say it and I know it does not look good. But if Maori are serious with their assertion of being all that they have proposed, then somehow the results are not showing. So where are the facts – please no fiction, work in progress or consultants are working on it.
PS.: 1% of all that is there is, is still 100% more than most people in this country have. If Moari want to convert the country back to were it was, please tell us all. More than happy to move on, really.
DTB
Yep I’m thinking that too. Seems to me the one who gets the minority of votes slips through.
Oh I forgot in Auckland central, Jacinta Adern with 14321 votes missed out by 737 and yet the Greens vote was about 2,903.
Nats must be laughing…I’m not.
..but it does show that in spite of the nonsense polls the John Key government can be beaten by people thinking before they vote.
On point three Tāmaki Makaurau Jones never had a chance. And anyway, Shane Jones has proved he was more right wing than Pita. Is this vote labour, because we know best list? Wil labour voters in Waiariki vote for the Mana candidate? It seems to me there is a double standard at play here or is that just me?
I have been reading an article on Clare Robinson in ‘Your Weekend’ (The Press)…and what a contrast she is to Mihi Forbes ( also featured).
Mihi Forbes is widely regarded by professional journalist commentators as a thoughtful listener and very skilled interviewer. An experienced journalist she has some notable interviews and has done investigative journalism into some important and controversial issues …She works for Maori television and heads the programme ‘Maori Affairs’.
In contrast Claire Robinson seems to be a very shallow, self- aggrandising person who just lucked in to being a political commentator…”People would say it didn’t matter what I said as long as I came across as credible”
…She has a PhD in political advertising and a bachelor of design degree…(in this article there is a lot about Robinson’s art design creative abilities, multiple job experiences and her family credentials ( mother a feminist, father a political scientist, ex-husband High Commissioner to Kiribati…marriage breakdown…she took off with the chosen house painter….)
…In essence Claire Robinson is a self -styled right wing political commentator in ” Twitter world”
She met David Cunliffe in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs …and her biggest beef against him seems to be that he was ” married, and no one else was “…and he was ambitious in his career and “wasn’t interested in socialising”…Today “We’re friendly to each other. He knows I’ve always given him a hard time.”……”He’s had to learn on the job, which is never a good thing to do…and learn about it in the public eye.”
“If I had to write the perfect job description for me, I would write this sort of job”….(expounding her political views and tinkering with paint and pencils….she doodles in meetings and they’re very stylish doodles)
“Mihi Forbes is widely regarded by professional journalist commentators as a thoughtful listener and very skilled interviewer.”
On National Radio Media Report this morning they talked about a major review of Maori TV but the review will not be released until after the election. It is possible that Mihi’s great Native Affairs program will/might be closed in favour of a magazine type program. Implies that Mihi is too good at her job and has upset some senior Maori leaders.
Maori tv displeases the corporate iwi and hollowmen so they rigged the board and dropped in a new CEO.
This caused a director resignation over the process and his former employer to offer an insight on what this person was let go for but the board declined so they didnt risk his appointment with incovenient facts.
The new chief is a conflict monkey sent in to ‘realign’ and crash into the trouble makers making their tenure unpleasant. Nats want maori tv to be the same subservant outlet that tvnz and rnz are for them.
Act leader Jamie Whyte , in the aftermath of a widely pilloried speech about Maori privilege, went on Mihi Forbes’ ‘Native Affairs’ programme to explain himself ….and had to admit that he had never heard of whanau ora !….
“When you are going to be attacking race–based policies , you should know about the number one policy for the Maori party ,” Forbes says.
Maybe this is why the NACTS and their brown nosers could be keen to get rid of a seriously good journalist and her programme….she asks the questions which expose their arrogance and ignorance and incompetence…and is not a lightweight right wing PR flibbertijibbet …. masquerading as a journalist
A Labour Left coalition simply MUST win this Election !
“once again..confirming that internet/mana and the greens are the only ‘clean’ parties..the only parties able to be trusted to do the reforms needed”
Pu, do list all “the reforms needed” so we can fact check for ourselves.
Make it a conclusive, once and for all type document, and just put it out there.
You may be correct, you might have missed a press release or something and labour (no pun) under misapprehension, or you might just be gassing from your head hole, but at least we’ll have a definitive list to decide who to trust, or not, and for what reasons.
Well at least he admits it. His supporters can now follow his lead, saying he is principled, because honesty is the best policy is it not? And principles are good yes? Therefore he is good in all things. Because good and bad cannot co-exist. That would be unfair otherwise. Honestly admitting to your crimes negates the crime. Yes. That’ll be it. Because 1-1=0 and zero means nothing gained nothing lost = balance.
Actually I want that too – but I’m a greedy bugger. I want more than that. I want my children to have one too. One that is similar to the one only wealthy have (a la Kidzone – commercial free). I also want a channel that provides archive material that has been publicly funded, or that public funds have contributed to – which would otherwise have not been funded (a la Heartland).
And I’m super greedy. I want a channel that provides access to the NZ citizenry for other publicly funded enterprises such as NZSO, NZ Ballet, NZ Opera, live music and culture of all descriptions including new music and any and everything that receives funding through NZ on Air, Te Mangai Paho, Ministry for Culture and Heritage or any other public money, and which reflects local/regional views.
Since I’m super super greedy, I also want another radio channel that provides access to the many, for new music and arts and culture, AND publicly funded networking facilities for local iwi radio and the ability for them to express themselves to a wider audience.
Public Sphere and all that quaint sort of thing that’s relevant to the diversity of 4.5 million people.
+100…Once Was Tim….Yes, Yes, Yes!…maybe you can offer your services to the new Labour Left coalition Govt…sounds like you know what you are talking about!
Discourses of Rumi: a sample taken from Discourse four…
“…This is like the story they tell of a certain king. This king entrusted his son to a team of learned men. In due course they had taught him the sciences of astrology, geomancy and so forth so that he became a complete master, despite his utter dullness of wit and stupidity.
One day the king took a ring in his fist and put his son to the test.
‘Come, tell me what I am holding in my fist.’
‘The thing you are holding is round, yellow and hollow,’ the prince answered.
‘Since you have given all the signs correctly, now pronounce what thing it is,’ the king said.
‘It must be a sieve,’ the prince replied.
‘What?’ cried the king. ‘You gave correctly all the minute signs, such as might well baffle the minds of men. Out of all your powerful learning and knowledge how is it that this small point has escaped you, that a sieve cannot be contained in the fist?’
In the same way the great scholars of the age split hairs on all manner of sciences. They know perfectly and have a complete comprehension of those other matters which do not concern them. But as for what is truly of moment and touches a man more closely than all else, namely his won self, this your great scholar does not know. He pronounces on the legality or otherwise of every thing, saying. ‘This is permitted and that is not permitted, this is lawful and that is unlawful.’ Yet he knows not his own self, whether it is lawful or unlawful, permissible or not permissible, pure or impure.”
Regarding manipulation of polls, please search for this article – The Guardian UK
theguardian.com, Monday 14 July 2014 19.22 BST
GCHQ has tools to manipulate online information, leaked documents show
Documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal programs to track targets, spread information and manipulate online debates
i guess key can use the word ‘henchmen’ so easily..
..because of his own long history of use of henchmen/women as detailed by/in ‘dirty politics’..
“..It is now used to generally describe any person with subordinate status derisively- while most often used specifically to a hired guard or minion of a villain or master criminal..”
..i thought a good villain-name for key cd be ‘mr smiley’..
capital gains tax. will transfer investment from speculative to productive parts of the economy without destroying wealth (whereas speculation is fantastic for wealth destruction).
broadening the central bank’s mandate so that the government can more directly support export, which has been suffering for yearsnyears.
pumping up the minimum wage. because fuck yes. two names associated with pushing for higher wages – henry ford (look up “fordism”) and marriner eccles, former chairman of the ny fed. which is kind of america’s central bank, in a roundabout way.
Really enjoyed Media watch and interview with Independent Journalist about the need for better independent reporting etc.
Then came the news (note the order)
Sunday RNZ news 10:00
•Murray McCully wants to stop whaling
•Green will be highlighting the spying going on in NZ, Key says they have not been doing Surveillance
•John Kerry USA, soon terrorism will be everywhere
The wheels have come off teamkey since dirty politics, expect the kitchen sink in the 6 days till the only poll that matters.
the MSM will shill their butts off and key will say all sorts of whacky stuff as answering questions and telling the truth has never been demanded of him so he will dig himself a deeper hole.
stay positive and focused as It was always going to be close. I have got as many expats to vote as possible, it was easy once I asked them how the whanau back home were doing under 6years of shonkey.
Lynn have you sorted out some sort of live chat app for election night? Trying to post comments would of course be woeful. IRC is probably the best way to go, with a web-app, so those of us that can can use an IRC client and therefore not need to rely on (or add more load to) the webserver.
There have been comments in the media ( and all that early stuff) about letting the biggest party govern/Key being prepared to run a minority government.
Can anybody tell me is it possible for Key the day after the election to get in a car (sod any negotiating) and go up to the Governor general and go, “I’ll have a warrant to be the next prime Minister and I’ll run a minority government”. The GG then goes “for the sake of National stability I’ll do it” or some like rubbish.
Does this then mean that the other parties have to vote them down when parliament reconvenes and we have another election?
Or do we park Russell or Hone or someone down the end of the GG’s drive and phone them up if Key appears?
That is only possible if all other options have been exhausted. So the various permutations have to be tried/negotiated based on Party votes.
I guess if Labour gathered in Greens, NZF, Internet Mana, Maori Party, United Future, and the Civilians who together gained over 50% of the Party Vote, they can govern regardless of the National 45%, and other odd sods who offer a minority Government.
Yes that is what normally happens but what questions does the GG have to ask. If Key tries some sort of end run like this does GG have to contact Cunliffe Turei Norman and check they don’t have a bigger block?
Not sure I trust some of the leading players here?
The hopeful PM has to confirm they have the support of Parliament, and the GG has to be satisfied that they do (satisfaction can include a broad measure of things, such as whether the election was fair and free – if there are doubts, then the GG may refuse the hopeful PM until such concerns are resolved).
So yes, what you’re proposing is possible if the hopeful PM lied to the GG and the GG simply believed it (ie, ignored all media reporting that the hopeful PM did not in fact have a majority), however would never happen in practice because it would be embarrassing to the GG, the Queen, and the public of NZ to install a government that was subsequently defeated at the first motion of no confidence (which is the first motion voted on at the start of each new government).
So far as I understand things, the conventions are:
1. The PM and his ministers hold their warrants personally until they resign, whether there is an election or not.
2. Post-election, the carry-over govt is regarded as a caretaker administration until new arrangements are made (old ministers resign, new warrants issued to new ministers).
3. The GG “takes advice” from the caretaker PM about who will be the next PM and accepts his/her list of ministers and swears them in (issues their warrants).
4. The GG and the Cabinet, acting as an Executive Council, set the date for the next sitting of Parliament.
5. Parliament convenes, sitting as a Government and an Opposition (the Westminster system is technically only ever a two-party system: the political parties can shift from one side to the other at will without triggering an election).
6. If the Opposition thinks it can overturn the sitting Government, it can bring a Motion of No Confidence, moved by the Leader of the Opposition.
7. If the MNC is passed, the government resigns and the outgoing PM advises the GG to invite the mover of the MNC motion to form a government.
8. And then points 3, 5, 6, 7, repeat until either stability is achieved or it all becomes too much and a new election is called for.
The two flies in the ointment are that, firstly, it’s all done by custom/ convention (UNLESS the Acts establishing MMP set up new rules??), and secondly that the GG usually takes the advice of the PM, whatever it may be. Precedent exists for the GG to discard that advice (eg Whitlam’s dismissal in Aus), but if the PM chooses to gives bad advice for political advantage then the GG will usually follow it.
Generally it all sorts itself out in the wash and doesn’t need a new election, just some discipline and negotiation.
Quite true, Weka, but it’s even more complicated than that. The MMP rules allow individuals, once in Parliament, to change their allegiances – the famous “waka-jumping” rule. It’s based on the old figment of the imagination under FPP that not parties but only individuals may be elected to Parliament, and they may then decide to align themselves with a political party. That’s why in the good old days Winston et al could change parties during a session without resigning, because they held their seats personally. Under MMP successful List candidates were given the same protection resulting in, for example, Brendan Horan being expelled from NZF but retaining his List seat as an individual (a mistake in the MMP List rules, in my opinion).
Even though we get a parliament elected by a tribal/ political party vote, party behaviour is still all by convention. JK raises the many-headed hydra image to frighten the faithful, but the truth is that (a) there are only ever two parties in parliament and (b) there are 120+ individuals who can align themselves whichever way they want to after they are sworn in. The good news is that this usually only happens at the fraying edges of the political parties. So far.
The possibility of a minority grouping reaching across the political party divide and inviting individuals from the other teams to come and play nicely and form a government with them is always a political reality. Depends upon the incentive, I suppose.
Fisheries ambassadorship, anyone? Or lovely baubles of office, perhaps?
It was mooted on either Q and A or Nation this morning – that Winston could do exactly what you refer to in your last para, and become prime minister !
Your para: “The possibility of a minority grouping reaching across the political party divide and inviting individuals from the other teams to come and play nicely and form a government with them is always a political reality. Depends upon the incentive, I suppose”.
Thank god for technological advances, otherwise Tony Abbott’s Liberal Party will have troubles running Parliament with all their members equidistant from each other – and doing it on less government funding: Welfare cut for terror suspects.
Joking aside, Abbott – like Key – continues to astound me when I think nothing that he does will surprise me again.
Like here the average punter in oz has little idea how owned the govt is by business interests as rupert controls a fair slice of media and reinhardt has a solid grip on fairfax ownership should she choose to go all the way.
abotts polling is bad but they dont care, getting the job done etc with turnbull paitently waiting in the wings when they need a new front next election. Expect more from tony he is far from done yet.
the wildcard is PUP, mining magnate clive palmers party who hold sway in the senate with senators like ricky muir and jacquie lambie take a seat and enjoy the show performed by its CT scripted actors.
Canada’s Conservatives have passed a bill giving foreigners the right to sue, in secret tribunals, to overturn Canadian law and First Nation treaties which might interfere their investments.
.
It’s official: Prime Minister Stephen Harper has approved the controversial Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) today.
In a short, two-paragraph news release, International Trade Minister Ed Fast said the deal was now ratified. It will come into force on October 1, 2014, and will be effective for 31 years, until 2045.
The original investment protection deal — which treaty law expert Gus Van Harten said could be in violation of the Canadian Constitution — was quietly signed in 2012 in Vladisvostok, Russia, but was delayed for two years due to public outcry
[…]
First Nations argued that the deal was not valid, as it would violate section 35 of the Constitution requiring consultation over projects that could affect traditional territory. The Hupacasath First Nation in B.C. took the federal government to court last year over the FIPA deal, while citizen advocacy groups Leadnow and SumOfUs delivered 60,000 signatures from across Canada in opposition to the agreement. The court decision on the Hupacasath First Nation’s legal appeal is still pending, despite the ratification.
If as you have stated, the GCSB drew up “mass protection ” programmes for NZers why did you veto it? Are we now “unprotected? And “unprotected” against what/whom?
Yep good questions and it will be interesting to see what they were proposing as these ‘mass protection’ programmes – we are now deep down the rabbit hole and the week ahead will be surreal and sickening as durrkey spins and slides.
If I were the cynical sort, I’d say that the metaphorical ink will still be dry on the documents ‘exonerating’ Key.
I think it was a journalist in Yes Prime Minister who asked “Is it true that the documents have yet to be released because the PM can only type with one finger?”
"It is only totalitarian governments that suppress facts. In
this country we simply take a democratic decision not to publish
them."
"How to discredit an unwelcome report:
Stage One: Refuse to publish in the public interest saying
1. There are security considerations.
2. The findings could be misinterpreted.
3. You are waiting for the results of a wider and more detailed
report which is still in preparation. (If there isn’t one, commission
it; this gives you even more time).
Stage Two: Discredit the evidence you are not publishing, saying
1. It leaves important questions unanswered.
2. Much of the evidence is inconclusive.
3. The figures are open to other interpretations.
4. Certain findings are contradictory.
5. Some of the main conclusions have been questioned. (If they haven’t,
question them yourself; then they have).
Stage Three: Undermine the recommendations. Suggested phrases:
1. ‘Not really a basis for long term decisions’.
2. ‘Not sufficient information on which to base a valid assessment’.
3. ‘No reason for any fundamental rethink of existing policy’.
4. ‘Broadly speaking, it endorses current practice’.
Stage Four: Discredit the person who produced the report. Explain
(off the record) that
1. He is harbouring a grudge against the Department.
2. He is a publicity seeker.
3. He is trying to get a Knighthood/Chair/Vice Chancellorship.
4. He used to be a consultant to a multinational.
5. He wants to be a consultant to a multinational."
"To suppress an internal government report, rewrite it as
official advice to the Minister. Then it is against the rules to
publish it, so you can leak the bits you want to friendly journalists."
It is completely accurate. In context, what Key is saying doesn’t even really make sense. It’s fairly clear what he’s *trying* to say, but as usual his slack speaking, muddled thinking and poor diction let him down.
Corin Dann:
But this was a huge issue at the time of this legislation and at no stage was there any mention that you were, that the GSCB was considering mass surveillance.
Key:
No, well, there’s total, there was total mention…
Seems like another lie from key really because ‘total’ is pretty definitive and in no way, shape or form was there ‘total mention’ that key and the GSCB were considering mass surveillance at the time of the legislation. Roll on Monday – in all its meanings…
Anyone know where I can still find a video of NIcky Hager Publically speaking at the Mt Eden War Memorial Hall on the 27th August. Everywhere I go it says it is unavailable. Thanking you
ScottGN I liked this bit and wondered why the 3rd to last sentence isn’t used by David:
Canada: “They are supported by a very traditional market argument that says raising minimum wage results in fewer jobs and is thus bad for the wider economy. Of course, the extension of this argument is that no minimum wage at all would be even better for the economy. If you think that, it is time for you to emigrate. There are many countries with no minimum wage.
On Q&A I thought Key looked serious and fluent and credible when talking to Corrin. Damn I thought!
Tonight on TV3 News he looked petulant, sulky and if one more question was asked of him he would have burst into tears. You know when someone struggles to contain their emotions their face muscles tremble and give you away.
The current issues are hurting him.
John Key does not like being criticised or exposed. He does not like losing. It’s what drives him and, I guess it has brought him “success”: success as he sees it. However, it’s also his Achilles heel. He just will not back down, even when the evidence is clearly against him.
Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck fuck. I was pretty sure I was going to party vote GP, but I just watched Laila Harre interview Greenwald and Amsterdam and now I want to vote for her! She so should be in parliament. My heart says IMP, but my head says GP. I’ve never had a voting dilemma before. Anyone else not know what they are doing?
haha, I did think of that. Bit of a long way for me though.
(I think it’s too late anyway, don’t you have to live in an electorate for a month to be able to vote there?).
Maybe STV would solve the problem. Mostly the dilemma is because I don’t know how everyone else is voting. With STV, it would matter would it? because my preferences would be ordered depending on what other people did too.
STV very much frees up voting for minor parties as your vote for them cannot be “wasted”.
This would also mean ACT and UnitedDunne would almost certainly win their electorates, too.
I think if we end up with 2 large parties on the left and 2 large parties on the right there will be a big appetite to change the way electorate voting works. But IIRC the MMP review recommended no changes, because people having a party vote and a candidate vote is already confusing enough as it is, without making the candidate vote into an STV.
Possibly one compromise would be to just to let people have 2 votes for candidates, with the candidate winning the most votes winning. It avoids a full-on STV ranking confusion, while still allowing more representation.
“I think if we end up with 2 large parties on the left and 2 large parties on the right there will be a big appetite to change the way electorate voting works.”
Because candidate voting is FPP – you just have to get the ‘most votes’, it doesn’t have to be anywhere near 1/2 of them.
If there were 4 roughly even sized parties, there could be some electorates where “the wrong party won” because the other bloc “split the vote”.
We’re already seeing it now with people voting for Greens candidates who realistically have 0 chance of winning, but in doing-so they hand the electorate over to National instead of Labour.
Yip. Her stepping into the leadership of IMP was enough to shake my conviction for voting Labour.
Ultimately I gave up on IMP because they didn’t have any policies announced, and now that I’ve seen them I can’t say I’m super-thrilled with them either. They’ll have a lot more time to mature over this term and I’ll give them another chance next time.
I think party votes with ticks and candidate votes with numbers would be too confusing for a lot of people.
I think a reasonable compromise is 2 ticks for candidates, and 1 tick for party vote. Candidates still remains FPP and only a single candidate can win an electorate.
Either system would mean the phrase “two ticks for X” would no longer make sense, though.
@ CV
This has probably been talked about before. But what would be against local bodies using STV.? In theory it sounds useful for them, does it have fishhooks?
Thanks to you too. I enjoy these ‘Not The Six O Clock News’ from Harre. What a great idea! Not sure how many people watch these. I hope a lot of voters do.
I would love to see Laila Harre as the Governor General or the President of New Zealand one day.
Me too. I am having trouble choosing between Mana and the Greens. Every time I make a decision, the benefitting party says or does something I don’t like. Mana is slightly ahead at the moment.
Just watched the clip below of Susan Wood interviewing RN & MT from the Greens.
I honestly cannot believe the conduct of Susan Wood? At every opportunity she had to point out how badly Labour are doing in the polls, she even said ‘Labour are tanking’ with a smug grin on her face.
Absolutely disgraceful TVNZ! Anyone with half a brain, including Susan Wood, knows that the polls are all over the place, often do not include undecideds and in some cases appear to be complete bullshit. Yet Susan Wood does her best to suggest that National have it in the bag? Bias much!
Yet more evidence that MSM are in need of a serious clean up.
The fact that the polls are crap is the elephant in the room that the MSM are doing their best to avoid.
If the outcome of the election is sufficiently different from what polling suggests, then I think we may see a bit of a wake-up call for the media, as well as calls for the polling companies to explain themselves and reform their methodologies.
You could stop watching the puppets involved with the news as I have done. If you ever caught Thunderbirds you might get a whiff of connection with the actors there. Lady Penelope would be much more lively and stylish than Susan Wood.
This is a link to a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ video of Key before the last election. As he’s asked a very embarrassing question, his smiling face transforms as he looks down into something hateful. It’s the absolute opposite of the charming front he usually strives to effect. Such a pity that few of the Nats’ believers would ever have seen this, the real face, of their golden boy.
The video starts to get interesting from about 1 min 11 secs.
Commenting on a new ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph which puts Yes at 54 per cent and No at 46 per cent – and an Opinium poll for the Observer which puts Yes at 47 per cent and No at 53 per cent – Blair Jenkins, chief executive of Yes Scotland, said: ‘The new ICM poll gives Yes a record eight-point lead, which is hugely encouraging. Meanwhile, Opinium puts Yes behind, but just by six points.
I think in terms of turnout, the YES vote will be more energised and they will have it. And a friend pointed this out to me: we will know the Scottish result as we turnout to vote…if they vote for a change I think it will push us over the line too 🙂
Scottish referendum ,
I feel this has been poorly thought out and what ever happens the result will divide the Scottish people . The polls suggest a close result which will leave large numbers of scott’s in a state of despair which ever way it goes .
The vote to change should require a much higher % of the population to support leaving , imagine if 49% vote to stay , that’s trouble ahead , perhaps civil unrest .
“imagine if 49% vote to stay , that’s trouble ahead , perhaps civil unrest ”
….that view sounds a little like the ‘no’ compaign scare tactics
‘civil unrest’ tends to be associated with people who are poor, powerless, unemployed, marginalised, have nothing to lose, …
If the ‘yes’ vote wins there will still be a democratic election process in Scotland. And you can be sure that most Scots will want Scotland to succeed even if they voted ‘no’
Scots have been thinking and debating the pros and cons of being an independent nation for a very long time and whichever way the vote goes will not turn on each other
Buzz from the Beehive Transport Minister Simeon Brown dutifully issued advice to all road users to keep safe on our roads during the Easter weekend. He encouraged them to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. ...
Oliver Hartwich writes – New Zealanders recently learned about a new feature film. It will be about former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern – and taxpayers will subsidise it to the tune of NZ$800,000. Ardern had nothing personally to do with either the film or the subsidy. But her government’s ...
TL;DR: Here’s the top six news items of note in climate news for Aotearoa-NZ this week, and a discussion above that was recorded yesterday afternoon above between and The Kākā’s climate correspondent : An independent review panel into the emergency response to Cyclone Gabrielle in Hawkes Bayconcluded “that ...
There are now only a few days left to give feedback on the Draft Government Policy Statement (GPS) on Land Transport 2024-34 (see our earlier post this week on GPS submission guides). As we’ve reported, the GPS is a disaster for Local Government, so we were particularly interested to hear ...
Willis has pledged to go ahead with the debt-funded tax cuts, despite growing opposition from her own supporters worried about appearing fiscally irresponsible. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for ...
Open access notables A survey of interventions to actively conserve the frozen North, van Wijngaarden et al., Climatic Change:The frozen elements of the high North are thawing as the region warms much faster than the global mean. The dangers of sea level rise due to melting glacier ice, increased ...
Bryce Edwards writes – New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure. The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On ...
In 2015, then-Prime Minister John Key announced plans for a huge ocean sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands, banning fishing and mining from 15% of Aotearoa's EEZ. It was bold, it was ambitious, and it suggested that National might actually care about the environment. Except they fucked it up: Key failed ...
1. Who has just been given the accolade New Zealander of the Year?a. The Kokakob. The Cook Strait Ferryc. Fair God. Dr Jim Salinger 2. Which of these is an affront to decent society?a. Dame Edna Everageb. Mrs Doubtfire c. Dr. Frank-N-Furterd. Brian 3. Who is Penny Simmonds?a. The aspiring actress in Big ...
New Zealand’s biggest-ever political donations scandal is finally at an end. But what is the conclusion? No one can really be sure.The Court of Appeal released its judgement on Tuesday about the Serious Fraud Office case against the NZ First Foundation. On the face of it, the court found ...
Buzz from the Beehive Waves of rain are set to lash much of the North Island during Easter Weekend as a low-pressure system forms east of New Zealand, according to a weather forecast published in the past day or so. Niwa was warning of a “moisture-laden” long weekend, with rain expected ...
Look around us…Nicola Willis’ promises of balancing the books, of cutting spending without reducing services, and of delivering game changing tax cuts are disappearing before her eyes.Everyday we see stories of violent crime ending in horrific injuries, or worse. The cost of living worsens, whereas the PM claimed renters would ...
TL;DR: My top six news of note on the morning of Thursday, March 28 include:The Government will have to borrow between $10 billion to $15 billion more than previously expected in order to make up for a slowing economy and to pay for $14.9 billion of tax cuts, according to ...
This story by Naveena Sadasivam and Kate Yoder was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. The long-awaited jobs board for the American Climate Corps, promised early in the Biden administration, will open next month, according to details shared exclusively ...
Should landlords be able to deduct the interest on the loans they take out to bankroll their property speculation? The US Senate Budget Committee and Bloomberg News don’t think this is a good idea, for reasons set out below. Regardless, our coalition government has been burning through a ton of ...
Treasury’s first report on the economy since the change of government presents a damning indictment of Labour’s economic management. The problem for National is that it is so damning that logically, coupled with a rapidly slowing economy, Finance Minister Nicola Willis should respond to it by postponing or even cancelling ...
Budget tensions are becoming evident within the Coalition Government. Winston Peters made numerous political points in his speech to the NZF annual conference. But the attack on his own government’s fiscal policies raised issues of substance. ‘Today in the Sunday Star Times, journalist and former advisor to the Labour ...
Buzz from the Beehive The media – sure enough – have been binging on Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ release of the Budget Policy Statement and a statement headed Government announces Budget priorities This assures us – or rather, this parrots the Luxon team mantra – that the Budget “will deliver ...
The Ides of March brought me COVID followed by a bereavement. No wonder they tell you to be careful of them.I’m home now and have resumed the interrupted recuperation. Very much looking forward to getting back to regular things. Meanwhile, some thoughts…OneThis new Prime Minister guy just keeps getting more dire. ...
News that the Chinese ATP 40 cyber-hacking unit penetrated parliamentary internet networks in 2021 has renewed concerns about the PRC’s malign intentions in Aotearoa. But is the hack that significant given the length of time that has passed since its … Continue reading → ...
When Parliament passed the Intelligence and security Act in 2017, they assured us all that it was full of safeguards. Any intrusive surveillance of New Zealanders would be subject to a "triple lock", requiring the approval of the Minister and (supposedly independent) Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, as well as post-facto ...
Eric Crampton writes – Richard Harman’s Politik newsletter provides a bit of the context that ought to have been showing up in other media reports on potential reductions in public service staffing. Media has been reporting on staffing cuts on the order of about 7%. Is that ...
Mike Grimshaw writes – It’s becoming increasingly apparent that many perceive free speech to have become the preserve of the politically right wing, the religiously conservative, the libertarian fringe, the anti-trans, the anti-Māori and…. well, just fill in with whatever groups or individuals you don’t like and don’t ...
Don Brash writes – As everybody who is not blind and deaf is aware, there is a huge political preoccupation with climate change at the moment, a widespread (though by no means unanimous) belief that global temperatures are rising mainly as a result of the greenhouse gases created ...
TL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy on Wednesday, March 27 include:Chris Bishop laid out his vision for filling Aotearoa-NZ’s $100 billion infrastructure deficit in a speech yesterday, emphasising user pays and private funding, but failed to say how to achieve bipartisanship on population, public borrowing and ...
Bryce Edwards writes – Former Finance Minister Grant Robertson and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins have been conveying how unhappy they are with the tax system. Last week in his valedictory speech, Robertson called for the introduction of a wealth or capital gains tax. And this week Hipkins ...
On February 14, 2023 we announced our Rebuttal Update Project. This included an ask for feedback about the added "At a glance" section in the updated basic rebuttal versions. This weekly blog post series highlights this new section of one of the updated basic rebuttal versions and serves as a ...
Buzz from the Beehive China has loomed large in Beehive considerations over the past 24 hours, largely because of that country’s mischief-making in the cyber espionage department. Two media statements emerged on that subject hard on the heels of the PM baulking at questions put to him on RNZ’s Morning ...
Chris Trotter writes – WHY IS THE NATIONAL PARTY doing so much for landlords, property developers, trucking, and construction companies, and so little for everybody who isn’t already pretty well-off? It’s as if protecting landlords’ investments and building apartments and roads now constitute the whole of National’s ...
Bryce Edwards writes – When she was campaigning to be Minister of Finance last year, Nicola Willis pledged that she would resign from the job if she failed to deliver tax cuts in her first Budget. Now, it’s that pledge, along with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s ...
Robert MacCulloch writes – The Reserve Bank has doubled staff numbers in five years to 510, with personnel costs rising to $80 million in 2023 from $32 million in 2018 – up by a whopping 150%. I guess when you print $50 billion and flood markets with liquidity, ...
The furore. In case you didn’t notice there was a controversy in the weekend involving dolphins in a little town off the South Island. Don’t panic, they haven’t declared independence and resumed whaling, this was simply a sailing event.The problem began when racing was cancelled on the opening day of ...
For 20 years or more, the case for a meaningful capital tax gains has been mulled over and analysed to death, including by the tax working group chaired by Sir Michael Cullen. More than once, the International Monetary Fund has said a CGT would be a good idea for New ...
TL;DR: My top 10 news and analysis links this morning include:Today’s must-read: The Public Health Communications Centre (PHCC) call for urgent preventive action and a risk assessment survey of long covid in this briefing noteLocal scoop: NZ road deaths surpass OECD rates, so why is the govt reversing safety plans? ...
This story was originally published by Grist and is part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. This story is part of a collaboration with Grist and WABE to demystify the Georgia Public Service Commission, the small but powerful state-elected board that makes critical decisions about everything from raising ...
This is a guest post from Robert McLachlan Global warming is accelerating; 2023 was off the charts. We need to stop burning fossil fuels. In New Zealand, transport accounts for half of all fossil fuels burnt. In the Emissions Reduction Plan, transport emissions fall 41% by 2035. As the ...
Labour productivity has been receding rapidly over the past two years, reversing a post-lockdown rise. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy as at 6:26am on Tuesday, March 26 include:Workers have been treading water in output per hour worked for 12 years, ...
TL;DR: The key events to watch in Aotearoa-NZ’s political economy in the week to April 2 include:Today, Parliament resumes sitting at 2pm for the second week of a two-week session. Officials for SIS and GCSB report their annual reviews in public to the Intelligence and Security Select Committee from 5.10pm.Tomorrow, ...
Faced with a barrage of criticism over the promised tax cuts from usually supportive commentators, Finance Minister Nicola Willis yesterday reaffirmed her intention to include them in this year’s Budget. The Government is up against it over the cuts just about every way it turns. Commentators like Fran O’Sullivan, Matthew ...
Here’s my pick of today’s substack posts as of 6:26pm on Monday, March 25: writes via his substack that Market-rate housing will make your city cheaper writes via his substack about the problems talking to double-cab ute (truck) drivers about their vehicles. today about moments of radicalisation in ...
Buzz from the Beehive Just before Christmas, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered something that was pitched as a mini-budget and brayed about the decisive action being taken to repair the Government books and support income tax relief in Budget 2024. In a statement headed Fiscal repair job underway. she introduced ...
My sister Belinda asked Dad yesterday what one word would describe Mum best. He said: vivacious.If you only knew her from the photos on the slideshow we've made for today,you might wonder about that, because the camera tended to lie with Mum.If ever she saw a camera pointed at her, she ...
There are two major public consultations closing in the next week, Auckland Council’s Long Term Plan (LTP), and the draft Government Policy Statement on Land Transport (GPS). Closing dates and times: LTP closes Thursday 28 February, at 11.59pm – a minute to midnight! GPS closes Tuesday 2 April, at 12pm noon – note that’s ...
From Kiwiblog’s David Farrar – Bryce Wilkinson writes: Senior Fellow Bryce Wilkinson’s analysis reveals that since March 2009, New Zealand has spent $158 billion more overseas than it has earned, but its NIIP has only fallen by $32 billion.Statistics New Zealand shows that receipts from overseas reinsurers have ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition? Brian Easton writes – The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could ...
Dear Nicola Willis,Right now you’ve probably got lots of competing demands coming at you. Ministers who’ve inherited quite a mess, or so you’ve told us, looking for money in the budget to improve things. I imagine that’s why they came to parliament - to make things better.You’ll have to make ...
The Local Government, Transport and Auckland Minister hasthreatened councils with intervention if they don’t merge water assets to take them off balance sheet, just as the now-repealed Three Waters plan directed. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: My six things of note this morning for Monday, March 25 include:Simeon ...
A listing of 36 news and opinion articles we found interesting and shared on social media during the past week: Sun, March 17, 2024 thru Sat, March 23, 2024. Story of the week Thanks to John Mason having the stamina to sit down to watch "Climate - the Movie" ...
This morning the Q&A programme had Simeon Brown on to talk about National’s replacement for Three Waters. In case anyone’s forgotten the three are - drinking water, waste water, and sewerage. It’s quite important not to get them mixed up. In much the same way that you wouldn’t want to ...
Today’s newsletter comes with a mini-podcast conversation between me and my buddy Liv Tennet, talking about her time as a child actor in Lord of the Rings. It’s a conversation with a lot of giggles as she talks about falling off a horse, and becoming a meme. Read ...
The Desmog Climate Disinformation Database documents, "individuals and organisations that have helped to delay and distract the public and our elected leaders from taking needed action to reduce greenhouse gas pollution and fight global warming." It's a who's who of the organised climate change denial movement, in other words. In ...
Bob Edlin writes – A High Court judge has decided miscreants who have mana – or who claim to have mana – should be treated differently from miscreants who have none. It’s a ruling that suggests indigenous law-breakers have a better chance of securing a discharge without conviction ...
Welcome to the first, and possibly last, edition of Brickbats, Bouquets and Bull’s Wool. In which I’ll take a look at the events of the last week or so, and rate them.In such ratings the numbers usually have more to do with the opinions of the reviewer, than the actual ...
Roger Partridge writes – My earlier column this month, New Zealand’s highest court could be facing a turning point, prompted a flood of feedback from business readers and lawyers alike. A common query was what Parliament can do to restrain an overreaching judiciary. This week I discuss two steps Parliament ...
TL;DR: In today’s ‘six-stack’ of substacks at 6.16pm on Friday, March 22: writes about New Zealand's Building Boom—And What the World Must Learn From It over at his substack. challenges the Auckland Council’s use of a 3.8 degrees of warming forecast to oppose a wave-park and data centre project ...
Is she hinting that the Coalition Government will have to back down on key promises it made in Opposition?The Minister of Finance, Nicola Willis, is telling an evolving story about her fiscal challenges. In Opposition she was confident that she could deliver her promised income tax cuts. Appointed minister, she ...
Buzz from the Beehive Ministers of the Crown have drawn attention to one sector of the science sector which is unlikely to be subjected to heavy spending cuts, a state-funded broadcaster which is doing nicely, thank you, and a sporting event that had $5.4 million from the public purse puffed ...
Abbott’s Freestyle Libre sensors allow continuous glucose monitoring (CGM). The sensor is applied to the back of the patient’s arm, with a thin filament under the skin measuring glucose levels constantly. But it costs around $100 per sensor and must be replaced once every 14 days. Photo by BSIP/Universal Images ...
The Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) recently released a report in which he exposes the existence of a foreign intelligence partner-controlled technological “capability” inside the headquarters of the GCSB, NZ’s 5 Eyes-affiliated signals intelligence collection and analysis agency. … Continue reading → ...
Peter Dunne writes – Nearly three decades after the introduction of MMP and multiparty governments there should be a greater level of understanding about their finer points than often appears to be the case. The reaction to the despicable outburst from the Deputy Prime Minister at the weekend highlights ...
The sweet kisses from fruit of summerHave slowly been turning dullerYou say, "those times"And "remember the daysWhen we went outside and there still was the shade?"Taking no reason into play…Autumn. Clear, blue days shortening to longer nights, growing colder. Aotearoa.That’s us. The temperature dropping, the looming car crash - so ...
Bryce Edwards writes – “It is often said that behind every great man is a great woman”. This is the pitch by the National Party Botany electorate branch to attend their “Ladies Afternoon Tea with Amanda Luxon”. For $110 including GST, you can turn up on Saturday 20 April ...
David Farrar writes – The Electoral Commission has published the expense returns for political parties for the 2023 election. I’ve put them in a table with how many votes a party got so we can see the spend per vote. National only spent $3.34 for every vote they got, almost ...
Winston Peters’ headline-making actions over the past week may have been a show of political power intended to strengthen his hand in Budget negotiations. It was no accident that his State of the Nation speech was as it was. He made it as New Zealand First Leader, not as Deputy ...
Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The KākāTL;DR: The five things that mattered in Aotearoa’s political economy that we wrote and spoke about via The Kākā and elsewhere for paying subscribers in the last week included:Former Labour Finance Minister Grant Robertson bowed out of politics this week, giving a series of exit ...
Graham Adams writes — If you love the law or sausages, as the saying goes, best not to look too closely at how they are made. And after watching the orgy of self-pity when Newshub’s closure was announced on February 28, television journalism should definitely be added to the list of those ...
Venerable New Zealand political commentator, Chris Trotter (https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/), is a sad creature these days. Once one of the most reliable Leftist writers out there – Economic Left at that – Trotter seems to have absorbed the worldview of Auckland culture-war obsessives. It is not for me to categorise what he ...
The cruelty of short-term memory loss is that each time you ask where she is, you get the fresh shock and grief of the news. That was Dad's day yesterday.Comfortingly, it seems to be less so today. Last night he looked crumpled, today he seems more settled. There's a card ...
The Coalition Government’s plan to ‘get Auckland moving’ is a cuts cover-up that will ultimately cost Aucklanders more to move around the city, says Labour Auckland Issues spokesperson Shanan Halbert. ...
Slashing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples by 40% will have a devastating impact on pacific communities and further highlights how little this government cares about anything other than cutting taxes for the wealthiest few. ...
Labour has proposed an urgent inquiry to investigate the ever-increasing profits of supermarkets, aiming to lower costs for shoppers and food producers alike, says Labour Spokesperson for Commerce and Consumer Affairs Arena Williams and Primary Production Spokesperson Cushla Tangaere-Manuel. ...
With 14% of jobs on the line at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities, the responsible Minister Melissa Lee is failing to stand up for the very communities she’s meant to be representing. ...
COURT OF APPEAL: TRIFECTA OF VICTORY FOR NZ FIRST, TRIFECTA OF FAILURE FOR OPPONENTS For the third time since April 2020, New Zealand First has defeated the Serious Fraud Office and all those complicit in a malicious attack against a political party going about its lawful business in a lawful ...
The Green Party stands with people who live in public housing, people in dire housing need, experts and advocates in demanding better than the Government’s archaic approach to housing those who need our support the most. ...
New Zealand has recently lost the hosting rights of some major international sporting events including the America’s Cup, the Rugby Championship, Netball World Cup, and the Wellington Sevens. We are now at a huge risk of losing SailGP as well. And it won’t stop there. The recent issues with SailGP ...
A Member’s Bill drawn this week would modernise insurance law and make things fairer and more transparent for consumers, Christchurch Central MP Duncan Webb said. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues has confirmed she was aware of funding issues in mid-December and did nothing to stop it. On 14 March, she signed off on changes that were announced and implemented on 18 March without any consultation with disability communities. ...
Green Party MP Julie Anne Genter says her members' bill is an opportunity for the coalition government to plug the gap in electric vehicle incentives. ...
The National Government continues to talk about irresponsible tax cuts that will only drive up inflation, despite the country entering a technical recession. ...
The Minister for Disability Issues must act urgently to reinstate flexibility around the funding for disability support and apologise to disabled carers. ...
This story has been initiated by a leftie shill reporter who proactively sought to call a member of a former band, which disbanded twelve years ago, give their biased appraisal of what was said in my speech, and concocted a ham-fisted attempt at a story that does nothing but show ...
The Government has accepted Labour’s change to the Road User Charge (RUC) discount for hybrid vehicles, meaning there will still be some incentive for people to buy greener vehicles. ...
Many in the mainstream media have taken what was said in New Zealand First’s State of the Nation Speech in Palmerston North on Sunday and deliberately, deceitfully, and ignorantly misrepresented what I said and why I said it. The headlines and commentary on the news stated that I compared ‘co-governance ...
Kicking the most vulnerable people out of state housing and pushing them towards homelessness will result in a proliferation of poverty and trauma across our most vulnerable communities. ...
Te Pāti Māori co-leader and MP for Waiariki, Rawiri Waititi has penned a letter asking MPs to support his members bill to remove GST from all food. The bill is expected to go through its first reading in parliament this Wednesday. “I’m calling on all political parties to support my ...
Good afternoon. Thank you for, in your very busy lives, turning up to this meeting today. On October 14th last year New Zealanders overwhelmingly voted for change. That is exactly what this new government is bringing. New Zealand First campaigned to ‘take back our country’ and stop the disastrous economic ...
This year is about getting real with Kiwis and discussing the tough issues, as the National Government exacerbates inequality and divides New Zealand, Labour Leader Chris Hipkins said ...
The Government adding Significant Natural Areas (SNAs) to its already roaring environmental policy bonfire is an assault on the future of wildlife that makes Aotearoa unique. ...
After 12 years of fighting to protect our moana we are finding ourselves back at square one and back at court. Today, the Environmental Protection Agency is sitting in Hawera to reconsider an application from Trans-Tasman Resources to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed in South Taranaki. This ...
Minister Shane Jones’ decision to step away from a seabed mining project is evidence of the murky waters surrounding the Government’s fast-track legislation. ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The growth of Treaty of Waitangi clauses in legislation caused so much worry that a special oversight group was set up by the last government in a bid to get greater coherence in the publicservice on Treaty matters. When ministers first considered the need for tighter oversight in 2021, there ...
The Coalition Government’s miscalculation saga continues as it has forgotten an eyewatering $90 million gap in its interest deductibility cost figures, say Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds and Revenue Spokesperson Deborah Russell. ...
He Pou a Rangi Climate Change Commission has today released advice that says if the Government doesn’t act now New Zealand is at risk of not meeting its climate goals. ...
The Coalition Government has today confirmed it is abandoning first home buyers who are struggling to get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown has welcomed the passing of legislation to move light electric vehicles (EVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) into the road user charges system from 1 April. “It was always intended that EVs and PHEVs would be exempt from road user charges until they reached two ...
New Zealand is strengthening its ability to combat illegal fishing outside its domestic waters and beef up regulation for its own commercial fishers in international waters through a Bill which had its first reading in Parliament today. The Fisheries (International Fishing and Other Matters) Amendment Bill 2023 sets out stronger ...
Economists Carl Hansen and Professor Prasanna Gai have been appointed to the Reserve Bank Monetary Policy Committee, Finance Minister Nicola Willis announced today. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) is the independent decision-making body that sets the Official Cash Rate which determines interest rates. Carl Hansen, the executive director of Capital ...
Apartment owners and buyers will soon have greater protections as further changes to the law on unit titles come into effect, Housing Minister Chris Bishop says. “The Unit Titles (Strengthening Body Corporate Governance and Other Matters) Amendment Act had already introduced some changes in December 2022 and May 2023, and ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters will travel to Egypt and Europe from this weekend. “This travel will focus on a range of New Zealand’s traditional diplomatic and security partnerships while enabling broad engagement on the urgent situation in Gaza,” Mr Peters says. Mr Peters will attend the NATO Foreign ...
Transport Minister Simeon Brown is encouraging all road users to stay safe, plan their journeys ahead of time, and be patient with other drivers while travelling around this Easter long weekend. “Road safety is a responsibility we all share, and with increased traffic on our roads expected this Easter we ...
About 1.4 million New Zealanders will receive cost of living relief through increased government assistance from April 1 909,000 pensioners get a boost to Superannuation, including 5000 veterans 371,000 working-age beneficiaries will get higher payments 45,000 students will see an increase in their allowance Over a quarter of New Zealanders ...
Ensuring social housing is being provided to those with the greatest needs is front of mind as the Government restarts social housing tenancy reviews, Associate Housing Minister Tama Potaka says. “Our relentless focus on building a strong economy is to ensure we can deliver better public services such as social ...
The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary will not go ahead, with Cabinet deciding to stop work on the proposed reserve and remove the Bill that would have established it from Parliament’s order paper. “The Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary Bill would have created a 620,000 sq km economic no-go zone,” Oceans and Fisheries Minister ...
Dam safety regulations are being amended so that smaller dams won’t be subject to excessive compliance costs, Minister for Building and Construction Chris Penk says. “The coalition Government is focused on reducing costs and removing unnecessary red tape so we can get the economy back on track. “Dam safety regulations ...
The coalition Government is expanding the medium-scale adverse event classification to parts of the North Island as dry weather conditions persist, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay announced today. “I have made the decision to expand the medium-scale adverse event classification already in place for parts of the South Island to also cover the ...
The passing of legislation giving effect to coalition Government tax commitments has been welcomed by Finance Minister Nicola Willis. “The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2023–24, Multinational Tax, and Remedial Matters) Bill will help place New Zealand on a more secure economic footing, improve outcomes for New Zealanders, and make our tax system ...
Science, Innovation and Technology Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education and Skills Minister Penny Simmonds today announced plans to transform our science and university sectors to boost the economy. Two advisory groups, chaired by Professor Sir Peter Gluckman, will advise the Government on how these sectors can play a greater ...
The Budget will deliver urgently-needed tax relief to hard-working New Zealanders while putting the government’s finances back on a sustainable track, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. The Finance Minister made the comments at the release of the Budget Policy Statement setting out the Government’s Budget objectives. “The coalition Government intends ...
The coalition Government will look at options to address a zoning issue that limits how much financial support Queenstown residents can get for accommodation. Cabinet has agreed on a response to the Petitions Committee, which had recommended the geographic information MSD uses to determine how much accommodation supplement can be ...
Cabinet has agreed to a short extension to the final reporting timeframe for the Royal Commission into Abuse in Care from 28 March 2024 to 26 June 2024, Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden says. “The Royal Commission wrote to me on 16 February 2024, requesting that I consider an ...
The coalition Government is delivering an $18 million boost to New Zealanders needing to travel for specialist health treatment, Health Minister Dr Shane Reti says. “These changes are long overdue – the National Travel Assistance (NTA) scheme saw its last increase to mileage and accommodation rates way back in 2009. ...
The Government is recognising the innovative and rising talent in New Zealand’s growing space sector, with the Prime Minister and Space Minister Judith Collins announcing the new Prime Minister’s Prizes for Space today. “New Zealand has a growing reputation as a high-value partner for space missions and research. I am ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has confirmed New Zealand’s concerns about cyber activity have been conveyed directly to the Chinese Government. “The Prime Minister and Minister Collins have expressed concerns today about malicious cyber activity, attributed to groups sponsored by the Chinese Government, targeting democratic institutions in both New ...
Independent Reviewers appointed for School Property Inquiry Education Minister Erica Stanford today announced the appointment of three independent reviewers to lead the Ministerial Inquiry into the Ministry of Education’s School Property Function. The Inquiry will be led by former Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully. “There is a clear need ...
State Highway 1 across the Brynderwyns will be open for Easter weekend, with work currently underway to ensure the resilience of this critical route being paused for Easter Weekend to allow holiday makers to travel north, Transport Minister Simeon Brown says. “Today I visited the Brynderwyn Hills construction site, where ...
Introduction Good morning to you all, and thanks for having me bright and early today. I am absolutely delighted to be the Minister for Infrastructure alongside the Minister of Housing and Resource Management Reform. I know the Prime Minister sees the three roles as closely connected and he wants me ...
New Zealand stands with the United Kingdom in its condemnation of People’s Republic of China (PRC) state-backed malicious cyber activity impacting its Electoral Commission and targeting Members of the UK Parliament. “The use of cyber-enabled espionage operations to interfere with democratic institutions and processes anywhere is unacceptable,” Minister Responsible for ...
Foreign Minister Winston Peters and Defence Minister Judith Collins today announced New Zealand will provide logistics support for the upcoming Solomon Islands election. “We’re sending a team of New Zealand Defence Force personnel and two NH90 helicopters to provide logistics support for the election on 17 April, at the request ...
The European Union Free Trade Agreement Legislation Amendment Bill received Royal Assent today, completing the process for New Zealand’s ratification of its free trade agreement with the European Union. “I am pleased to announce that today, in a small ceremony at the Beehive, New Zealand notified the European Union ...
Public consultation on the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons has concluded, Internal Affairs Minister Hon Brooke van Velden says. “I have been advised that there were over 11,000 submissions made through the Royal Commission’s online consultation portal.” Expanding the scope of the Royal Commission of ...
Hardworking families are set to benefit from a new credit to help them meet their early childcare education (ECE) costs, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says. From 1 July, parents and caregivers of young children will be supported to manage the rising cost of living with a partial reimbursement of their ...
A specialised Independent Technical Advisory Group (ITAG) tasked with preparing and publishing independent non-binding advice on the design of a "green" (sustainable finance) taxonomy rulebook is being established, Climate Change Minister Simon Watts says. “Comprising experts and market participants, the ITAG's primary goal is to deliver comprehensive recommendations to the ...
Defence Minister Judith Collins has thanked the Chief of Army, Major General John Boswell, DSD, for his service as he leaves the Army after 40 years. “I would like to thank Major General Boswell for his contribution to the Army and the wider New Zealand Defence Force, undertaking many different ...
25 March 2024 Minister to meet Australian counterparts and Manufacturing Industry Leaders Small Business, Manufacturing, Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Andrew Bayly will travel to Australia for a series of bi-lateral meetings and manufacturing visits. During the visit, Minister Bayly will meet with his Australian counterparts, Senator Tim Ayres, Ed ...
Government commits almost $3 million for period products in schools The Coalition Government has committed $2.9 million to ensure intermediate and secondary schools continue providing period products to those who need them, Minister of Education Erica Stanford announced today. “This is an issue of dignity and ensuring young women don’t ...
Good morning, it’s great to be here. First, I would like to acknowledge the New Zealand Institute of Building Surveyors and thank you for the opportunity to be here this morning. I would like to use this opportunity to outline the Government’s ambitious plan and what we hope to ...
Minister for Pacific Peoples Dr Shane Reti has announced the Government’s commitment to the Auckland Secondary Schools Māori and Pacific Islands Cultural Festival, more commonly known as Polyfest. “The Ministry for Pacific Peoples is a longtime supporter of Polyfest and, as it celebrates 49 years in 2024, I’m proud to ...
Before moving onto the substance of today’s address, I want to recognise the very significant and ongoing contribution the Breast Cancer Foundation makes to support the lives of New Zealand women and their families living with breast cancer. I very much enjoy working with you. I also want to recognise ...
New Zealand has notched up a first with the launch of University of Canterbury research to the International Space Station, Science, Innovation and Technology and Space Minister Judith Collins says. The hardware, developed by Dr Sarah Kessans, is designed to operate autonomously in orbit, allowing scientists on Earth to study ...
Introduction Thank you for inviting me to speak with you today and I’m sorry I can’t be there in person. Yesterday I started in Wellington for Breakfast TV, spoke to a property conference in Auckland, and finished the day speaking to local government in Christchurch, so it would have been ...
The Coalition Government is contributing more than $1 million to support the establishment of an emergency multi-agency coordination centre in Northland. Emergency Management and Recovery Minister Mark Mitchell announced the contribution today during a visit of the Whangārei site where the facility will be constructed. “Northland has faced a number ...
New Zealanders have enjoyed a broader range of voices telling the story of Aotearoa thanks to the creation of Whakaata Māori 20 years ago, says Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka. The minister spoke at a celebration marking the national indigenous media organisation’s 20th anniversary at their studio in Auckland on ...
Commercial catch limits for some fisheries have been increased following a review showing stocks are healthy and abundant, Ocean and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones says. The changes, along with some other catch limit changes and management settings, begin coming into effect from 1 April 2024. "Regular biannual reviews of fish ...
COMMENTARY:By Ronny Kareni Since the atrocious footage of the suffering of an indigenous Papuan man reverberates in the heart of Puncak by the brute force of Indonesia’s army in early February, shocking tactics deployed by those in power to silence critics has been unfolding. Nowhere is this more evident ...
Analysis - Nicola Willis is holding firm on tax cuts despite the economic outlook being worse than forecast and critics urging her to wait, writes Peter Wilson for The Week In Politics. ...
Opposition MPs and unions are criticising a proposal by New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples to cut staff by 40 percent. The country’s largest trade union — The Public Service Association — says the ministry has informed staff that it is looking to shed 63 of 156 positions. Opposition MPs ...
A poem by Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2024 featured poet Carin Smeaton. Daughtr of the 90s when she gets promoted to usherette a baby blu eel carries her all the way up to mothership she’s hovering high she lets the underaged in to see keanu reeves she lets the only lonely ...
Analysis by Keith Rankin. Keith Rankin, trained as an economic historian, is a retired lecturer in Economics and Statistics. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand. My earlier article – Can ‘Good’ be the Greater Evil? – looked at the issue of how wars should end, and how Good versus Evil ...
The only published and available best-selling indie book chart in New Zealand is the top 10 sales list recorded every week at Unity Books’ stores in High St, Auckland, and Willis St, Wellington.AUCKLAND1 AMMA by Saraid de Silva (Moa Press, $38)A stunning debut novel reviewed by Brannavan ...
From Steve Martin to Ricky Stanicky, a pick’n’mix of things worth watching and listening to this long weekend. This is an excerpt from our weekly pop culture newsletter Rec Room. Sign up here. If you’re at a loss for something to occupy yourself with this Easter, don’t panic: The Spinoff’s got ...
Jesus had dinner with his 12 disciples right before he died. Noted historian Madeleine Chapman finds out who really deserved to be there.First published in 2018 but let’s be honest, the subject is timeless. As you sit on your couch this Easter Sunday, eating a chocolate egg you know ...
The newly-promoted Northern League club is on a mission to return to the National League for the first time in two decades. Plenty about domestic football in New Zealand has changed in that time – but the sense that this amateur competition is not an entirely level playing field remains. ...
Comment: Every year on February 2, a dozen men in tuxedos and top hats approach the burrow of a groundhog in Gobbler’s Knob, Pennsylvania and entice the beaver-like rodent to emerge and predict the weather. If the groundhog, named Punxsutawney Phil, sees its own shadow when it is summoned, legend ...
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Auckland Council has put a deadline on new weather-impacted property owners applying for categorisation as government funding looks set to run out. Councillors have voted to support a deadline of September 30 for property owners who haven’t accessed support to come forward and engage with the council’s recovery office. It ...
NONFICTION 1 BBQ Economics by Liam Dann (Penguin Random House, $40) “It’s official,” wrote Dann nine days ago in the Herald, where he works as business editor at large, “we’re in recession.” Yeah, great. He delivered the bad stats: “GDP fell 0.1 percent in the December 2023 quarter, compared with ...
By Anneke Smith, RNZ News political reporter A petition urging the New Zealand government to provide urgent humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people has been tabled in the House. More than 200 people gathered on Parliament’s forecourt today and they were met by MPs from Labour, the Greens and Te ...
Pacific Media Watch The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog RSF (Reporters Without Borders) has appealed for information about the “disappearance” of Palestinian journalist Bayan Abusultan. She was reportedly last seen on March 19 among people “sequestered” in this week’s raid and siege of Al Shifa hospital by Israeli troops in ...
EDITORIAL:The Jakarta Post It happens again and again; indigenous Papuans fall victim to Indonesian soldiers. This time, we have photographic evidence for the brutality, with videos on social media showing a Papuan man being tortured by a group of plainclothes men alleged to be the Indonesian Military (TNI) members. ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robyn J. Whitaker, Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity A strange and eclectic range of activities takes place across these few weeks of the year. Some ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University It’s Easter weekend, which means many of us will be kicking back with the greatest hits on repeat. But whether you’re a boomer, or an ‘80s or ’90s kid, you might be ...
RNZ Pacific Fiji’s Acting Public Prosecutor has filed an appeal against the sentences of former prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama and suspended police chief Sitiveni Qiliho in their corruption case. Bainimarama was granted an absolute discharge for attempting to pervert the course of justice while Qiliho received a conditional discharge with ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Arosha Weerakoon, Senior Lecturer and General Dentist, School of Dentistry, The University of Queensland Casezy idea/Shutterstock How does toothpaste work? What did people use before toothpaste was invented? – Amelia, age 7, Meanjin (Brisbane) Thanks for your ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Brett Hallam, Associate professor, UNSW Sydney IM Imagery/Shutterstock Solar SunShot is well named. The Australian government announced today it would plough A$1 billion into bringing back solar manufacturing to Australia, boosting energy security, swapping coal and gas jobs for those ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Clare Dix, Research Fellow in Nutrition & Dietetics, The University of Queensland Easter is the time for chocolate. The shops are full of fantastically packaged and shiny chocolates in all shapes and sizes, making trips to the supermarket with children more challenging ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Emma Felton, Adjunct Senior Researcher, University of South Australia Even in a stubborn cost-of-living crisis, it seems there’s one luxury most Australians won’t sacrifice – their daily cup of coffee. Coffee sales have largely remained stable, even as financial pressures have ...
Mining company Trans-Tasman Resources has unexpectedly withdrawn its application for a consent to suck the valuable metals vanadium and titanium from the Taranaki seafloor, as it apparently wagers on the Government’s new fast-track process. It had spent two-and-a-half days putting its case to the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision-making committee, at ...
Contrary to the Associate Minister of Education’s claims, analysis of Healthy School Lunches Programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako assessments has revealed it provides excellent value for the taxpayer dollar, as a groundswell of public opposition to Government ...
Greenpeace says wannabe Taranaki seabed miner Trans-Tasman Resources is likely banking on Christopher Luxon’s fast-track process to side-step proper scrutiny of its Taranaki seabed mining proposal by bailing out of the Environmental Protection Agency hearing ...
Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Katie Attwell, Associate Professor, School of Social Sciences, The University of Western Australia Ground Picture/Shutterstock Months after COVID vaccines were introduced in 2021, governments and private organisations mandated them for various groups. Health and aged care workers were among the ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Andrew Dzurak, Scientia Professor Andrew Dzurak, CEO and Founder of Diraq, UNSW Sydney Diraq For decades, the pursuit of quantum computing has struggled with the need for extremely low temperatures, mere fractions of a degree above absolute zero (0 Kelvin or ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Adrian Beaumont, Election Analyst (Psephologist) at The Conversation; and Honorary Associate, School of Mathematics and Statistics, The University of Melbourne A national Essential poll, conducted March 20–24 from a sample of 1,150, gave the Coalition a 50–44 lead including undecided, a reversal ...
The Taxpayers’ Union has today made a formal request under the Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Open Government Information () for information held about how New Zealand Members of Parliament are spending taxpayer ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Robert Nelson, Honorary Principal Fellow, The University of Melbourne A Byzantine depiction of the Eucharist in Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.Jacek555/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA A nasty quarrel arose in the 11th century over what kind of bread should be used in holy ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Patrick Hesp, Professor, Flinders University Patrick Hesp In some parts of Australia, coastal dunes are retreating from the ocean at an alarming rate, as waves carve up the beach and wind blows the sand inland. But coastal communities are largely ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Luke Heemsbergen, Senior Lecturer, Digital, Political, Media, Deakin University With an impressive 60% of the US smartphone market, Apple is undeniably big, but not a clear monopoly. Yet, years of innovation by Apple have effectively given the company its own exclusive ...
Whether you’re facing layoffs or are just an emotional junior staffer, it’s always a good idea to scout out a good crying place before you need it. It’s an incredibly hard time for Wellington. Across the city, thousands of public servants are hearing tough news about redundancies and layoffs. Government ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By James Miller-Jones, Professor, Curtin University Nuclear explosions on a neutron star feed its jets. Danielle Futselaar and Nathalie Degenaar, Anton Pannekoek Institute, University of Amsterdam, CC BY-SA How fast can a neutron star drive powerful jets into space? The answer, it ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Daryl Adair, Associate Professor of Sport Management, University of Technology Sydney Earlier this week, independent MP Andrew Wilkie accused the AFL of conducting “off the books” illicit drug testing to identify players using substances of abuse, then inappropriately withdrawing them from matches ...
The Government’s announcement that it will scrap plans for a vast marine sanctuary around the Kermadec Islands is ‘shameful’ and will make it impossible for Aotearoa New Zealand to meet its international commitments, says the World Wide Fund for Nature ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By John Quiggin, Professor, School of Economics, The University of Queensland Shutterstock The federal government has bowed to pressure from the car industry, announcing it will relax proposed emissions rules for utes and vans and delay enforcement of the new standards ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of Sydney In his latest book, Jewish Life in Medieval Spain, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest ...
While creating a slate of world-class shows, Whakaata Māori also developed a generation of world-class creatives. Television is an odd word. It mixes the Ancient Greek and Latin languages, and its most literal meaning is “far-off sight”. In the contemporary and living language of te reo Māori, “whakaata” as a ...
Yesterday the UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza. This significant step and the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza prompted an urgent debate in the New Zealand Parliament. Leader ...
The Government’s decision to reduce access to continuous glucose monitors (CGM) not only threatens the lives of children with type 1 diabetes and increases the potential for ‘Dead in Bed’ syndrome, but also threatens the health of their parents an ...
Apples are available year-round, but the wide variety on offer involves intensive scientific research – and large-scale commercialisation. What’s beautiful, red, sweet and crunchy? Tony Martin’s favourite kind of apple: Sassy. The CEO of apple and pear breeding organisation Prevar, Martin’s fondness for Sassy represents professional success as well as ...
Family violence specialist service Shine is calling on employers to stop asking for proof of domestic violence in order for employees to access domestic violence leave. The call comes five years after the introduction of the Domestic Violence ...
The Deputy Chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee is calling for public submissions on the Budget Policy Statement 2024. The Budget Policy Statement 2024 (BPS) sets out the Government's priorities for the 2024 Budget. It explains the approach ...
Brutal government spending cuts that will see the size of the Ministry for Pacific Peoples slashed by 40% will hit Pasifika communities hard, the PSA says. The Ministry has told staff that it is seeking voluntary redundancies, and to redeploy and reassign ...
I live with five people I mostly love, but our different ideas about generosity are starting to really irk me.Want Hera’s help? Email your problem to helpme@thespinoff.co.nzDear Hera,This is a bit of a random one but here goes. I’m 22 and work an OK job (OK meaning I get paid ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Maria Nicholas, Senior Lecturer in Language and Literacy Education, Deakin University Earlier this month, the New South Wales government announced it would roll out programs for gifted students in every public school in the state. This comes amid concerns gifted school ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Christopher Rudge, Law lecturer, University of Sydney Massachusetts General Hospital In a world first, we heard last week that US surgeons had transplanted a kidney from a gene-edited pig into a living human. News reports said the procedure was a ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Tombs, Howard Paterson Chair of Theology and Public Issues, University of Otago The 5th-century Maskell panel showing Jesus in a loincloth.British Museum, CC BY-NC-SA When Jesus is shown on the cross, he is almost always depicted wearing a loincloth around ...
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Panizza Allmark, Professor Visual & Cultural Studies, Edith Cowan University Shutterstock When you think about a red object, you might picture a red carpet, or the massive ruby in the Queen’s crown. Indeed, Western monarchies and marketing from brands such ...
COMMENTARY:Jewish Voice for Peace The UN Security Council passed a resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday — and for the first time since the beginning of the Israeli military’s genocide of Palestinians, the United States abstained rather than vetoing it. Security Council resolutions are legally binding, ...
Asia Pacific Report A New Zealand investigative journalist and author says the US spy system hosted by the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) appears to be a controversial intelligence system used in global capture-kill operations. Writing a commentary for RNZ News today, Nicky Hager, author of Secret Power, a 1996 ...
While Nicola Willis wouldn’t give any details on its size, she said a package of tax cuts is definitely still coming in this year’s budget, writes Catherine McGregor in this excerpt from The Bulletin, The Spinoff’s morning news round-up. To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday, sign up here. ...
The Taxpayers’ Union is welcoming the investigation into the Department of Internal Affairs after it was revealed that the Department’s Chief Executive personally reached out to expedite a DJs passport application. Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns ...
Finance minister Nicola Willis delivers her first budget statement, and unwittingly helps Joel MacManus save his relationship. Nicola Willis strode into the Beehive Theatrette. Around me, on the green foldout seats, were the country’s top business and political journalists. They were all here to see her announce the Budget Policy ...
Twenty years ago today, Māori Television launched after much controversy. Jamie Tahana looks back on its survival and impact across two decades. Chad Chambers stepped onto the stage, the brim of his cap casting a shadow across his face. His smile beamed as bright as his white freezing works gumboots, ...
Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellsford, Onehunga, Westhaven marina – Gavin Strawhan walks the meanish streets of New Zealand in his entertaining debut novel The Call, almost sure to roar into the number 1 position on the Nielsen bestseller chart, its front cover bearing a rave from somebody: “A really good and genuinely ...
On a Thursday in February, at Wellington’s Conservation House, the Conservation Authority, a statutory body advising the eponymous department and minister, Tama Potaka, opened its 195th meeting. Under consideration that afternoon was an agenda item written by Tim Bamford, chief advisor in the Department of Conservation’s biodiversity, heritage and visitors ...
Where did Mr Slater receive his diploma/degree in journalism?
i have never really had any problems with slater claiming he is a journalist..
..’cos he is..
..critiques could be made of his tabloid/’truth’ style of journalism..
..but journalism it is..
.and his blog is a media-outlet..
..these are just basic definitions/facts..
Yes.
I think Slater is pretty much a really nasty person, but it seems to me that he fits all the criteria to be a journalist.
Why do you think someone needs one to become a journalist?
Can you think of any other profession that does not require formal qualifications?
And what, precisely, does a journalism qualification actually bestow upon someone?
It’s obviously not logical thinking or the ability to understand what scientists are saying. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with holding power to account either and, at the end of the day, anybody who’s been to school knows how to write an essay.
Wow National still really high in the Stuff poll, Disappointing they can govern alone. http://www.stuff.co.nz/interactives/polling/
The Sunday papers are all about National being set to win, and there being no chance for Labour.
It really shows how scared they are. Only those who lack confidence will shout loudest.
Are you saying the Sunday papers are scared and lack confidence, they are the ones printing the facts. Expect Labour to drop even further once everyone realises that they have no chance.
Which facts are they?
The current bunch of ‘journalists’ wouldn’t know fact from fiction.
Oh god, please stay on focus. Of cause its not the papers, hallo?
lol. yeah, scared they are.
They should be.
But then again, where there’s no sense, there’s no feeling.
Labour is in an insidious position with friends and foes unfairly undermining its leader and party, left, right and centre and stupidly talking up National at the same time, in spite of Cunliffe running a great campaign and Labour having such excellent policies! What the hell is wrong with the MSM and so many people?
@clemgeopin
Todays Rod Oram has a good summary of Labour’s economic policies versus Nats in the SST, and it clearly shows why Labour’s polices are far superior. It makes me wonder why so few of our media can see what Oram clearly explains. I suspect that National’s concerted #dirty politics campaign over the last 6 years combined with the ABC cabal has wrecked labour for this election, which is why they are struggling. Also National have done a good job of lying to people about the state of the economy, if I think one area where labour strategyin thi election is wrong is they should have attacked National harder around their Economic Management, Labour needed to highlight if you backed out ChCh$40b insurance proceeds and last years dairy proceeds anomaly (both wont exist in the next 2 to 3 years) from GDP we would have had zero growth. One thing is for sure, who ever wins next weekend will have their work cut out for them in the next 3 years, they are going to be tough.
Because the interests that are represented by National are not invested in a fair society. They just want to cash in on slave labor.
SST hot on mccullum wanting to suppress their article… When they have material from whaledump AND no crowing about their win over slater trying to stop them publishing
Slater sending his limitless helpers out early today.
So on this poll how many list mps make it back in? Losing Parker, Adern and Little will be very damaging for Labour. Greens the party of opposition I see in the future. And the next Government after this National one.
Not remotely interested in your attempt to dribble on about this subject.
With Labour at 22.4%, I’m left to wonder how they could have got it so wrong this year. At this % some big names are not going to make it back in. A cleanout might be good, but not an enforced one.
They didn’t get it wrong this year, at least if you mean they did something.
The got it wrong about this time last year when they elected David Cunliffe as leader. Why didn’t Grant get the job?
As you say a cleanout might be good but that isn’t what is going to happen. On the latest poll numbers the Labour Party is going to comprise a bunch of members who go back to last century. A cleanout would get rid of people like Goff, Mallard and King.
Hahahahahaha!
It is precisely this indecisive hick hack with some good old backstabbing that is costing labor. None of the voters are interested in this yesteryear Maldoon methods. You just have to blame yourself.
2017 will be a contest between National and the Greens. The Greens won’t be just after the party vote next time they will be out to win seats, and they will be contesting hard in any by-elections of Labour held seats, as Labour tries to rejuvenate their line up.
12 months ago no one could believe Labour’s result would have a two in front of it, now the question is will it have a one and will it be bigger than the Greens?
Just saw Norman and Turei on Q&A. Looking forward to the Greens in 2017! Very exciting govt. Want them to lead not be a junior coalition party.
Oh look, a brace of ratfuckers interviewing one another. The quintessential embodiment of irrelevance and mendacity.
We need better wingnuts: these ones are shite.
Don’t be silly. THEY were so excited about changing the government next week.
Sorry, but we on the right, predicted this in 2008-2009. You all refused to listen.
Hahahahaha!
[lprent: You will have to improve your comments or I’ll ban you as a mindless troll. Maniacal laughing is a sign of boring pointless abuse as far as I’m concerned ]
Maybe that is all his/her IQ allows lprent? We understand, stress can do this to people 😉
So writing drivel is OK but laughing at drivel is not?
Genuine question.
whohaa, a sentence, hallelujah. If you laugh about something please have us anticipating what is it that is so amusing. Some might have a different point of view, some might be laughing with you and a genuine punter might evolve. 🙂
Party Vote percentages are only based on eligible and decided voters. Respondents who are undecided, do not intend to vote or are ineligible to do so are excluded from the Party Vote.
Biased polling, can’t even report what percentage of people aren’t decided voters.
They did manage to point out that their interpration of results is based on the smaller parties keeping their existing seats.
14% undecided which is unusually high this far out from Sept20!
How about the Stuff poll on National’s tax cuts?
5200 replies so far, 67% say it’s bad, 10% say it’s marginal and 23% say it’s good.
Today’s must read:
Looking at similar NSA documents, the information Key wants to release is likely classified SECRET or TOP SECRET. That means its release would cause “serious” or “exceptionally grave” damage to security or intelligence operations (see p. 55 – 58). You and I may not agree with those operations, or their idea of “national security”, but Key and the GCSB supposedly do – and those concerns don’t disappear simply because the PM decides it would be politically useful to release. Unless of course in their eyes, “national security” means “National’s security”.
http://norightturn.blogspot.co.nz/2014/09/national-security-or-nationals-security.html
Maybe because Greenwald has already put the “top secret” information in the public domain and the government just gives the context.
… or Greenwald’s take on the misuse and misappropriation of our spy agencies is accurate. And Key is providing an example of it.
Were you one of those who complained about a Nanny State because of lightbulbs and school tuck shop food?
So what’s your view on a surveillance state?
The hypocrisy is unbelievable,
“David Slack @DavidSlack –
PM’s “proof” may turn out to be a single page statement from GCSB. What you might call a puffed up little sheet.”
My view too.
Clever use of words David.
Very amusing.
Who has the power to declassify docs?
But we have Key going on and on about “I won’t talk about security matters.” Or “It’s not in the public interest” But now that it’s in His interest. The Liar in Chief will even throw the countries security out the window, just to try and prove a point. That alone shows what contempt he holds ordinary Kiwi’s in.
key is not fit for office, any office, except his natural david brentishness’s office
Key claimed he knew nothing of the declassification of slaters oia docs, sonot hum.
Cancermole, & other Natz sinners,
NZ polls are manipulated.
Read & learn here.
Corruption case to answer and a police investigation must be ordered by the opposition, here are some facts.
A simple search last night of “Polls can be manipulated” – Google
found about 1,400,000 results.
Below leaves us all now with the knowledge of what in New Zealand is actually going on, it is more corruption of our MSM conducting manipulated polling results, and opposition now must call this as it is, corruption of the MSM and manipulation of all polls.
We were contacted Friday 22nd of August at 4pm by Herald Digipoll by a lady who first said we are conducting a poll and could we participate?
We said yes, then she said my supervisor is listening in, is that o/k?
I hesitated but agreed and she went through a ten minute questioning, and then abruptly said we don’t need your input thanks, and hung up!
This left us so disturbed we searched the web and found all 1.4 million cases of poll manipulations globally on Goggle, which include what is called “selective polling”
We believe we were a victim of a Herald Digipoll selective polling strategy.
NZ pols are corrupted, is this a crime?
This is just one case of the 1.4 million sites on Goggle in India which may show what is happening here in NZ.
quote;
New Delhi: Public opinion gathered by leading opinion poll agencies is often tweaked to give misleading results, Operation Prime Minister, a sting operation by a private news network, News Express, has revealed Tuesday. Well-known faces from leading opinion poll agencies have been caught on hidden camera agreeing to such malpractices.
Operation Prime Minister shows how opinion polls are conducted and manipulated at the instance of political parties, their results traded to show a particular party in a favourable position, for a price. Presenting snippets from the sting operation at a press conference, Editor-in-chief of News Express, Vinod Kapri said, “Our motivation behind conducting the sting operation was a letter written by the Election Commission of India to all regional and national parties inviting their views on the publication of opinion polls.
We wanted to investigate the concerns of the Commission.” In its letter dated 4 Oct, 2013, the Election Commission had said, “The Commission has been suggesting to the government that there should be a similar prohibition or restriction on opinion polls also as there could be several manipulated opinion polls which could impact the voting pattern.”
Another motivation behind the sting operation was the mushrooming of opinion polls. “There used to be one or two opinion polls every election. But now, one sees an opinion poll almost every week. Which leads us to the question- how is the data generated so quickly and processed,” said Kapri.
“Operation Prime Minister has exposed eleven opinion poll agencies, whose surveys are published in leading newspapers and magazines besides being broadcast by leading news channels”, it was claimed in the sting opertaion.
It demonstrates how the 810 million voters of our country are duped into believing trends or waves that are manipulated. – See more at:
“Opinion polls seem to have become the latest weapon in the poll campaign.
For a price, the prediction of seats tally can be changed to suit the interests of political parties.
The agencies have no qualms accepting even black money for this purpose”,
News Express claimed. The influence of opinion poll agencies goes beyond mere opinion polls. In some cases, the poll agencies have claimed they can even prop up dummy candidates in the constituencies where the rival candidate is on a strong wicket.
It has also been claimed that some leading editors are hand in glove with these poll agencies.
This is just a few of the 1.4 million sites on Goggle. – See more at:
http://www.ummid.com/news/2014/February/26.02.2014/opinion-poll-companies-exposed.html#sthash.wqSJ2ylu.dpuf
http://www.sciences360.com/index.php/statistics-16350/
http://www.ummid.com/news/2014/February/26.02.2014/opinion-poll-companies-exposed.html#sthash.h8rTzw8V.dpuf
http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/471548/exit-polls-manipulated-modi-will-never-be-pm-samajwadi-party.html
http://www.rediff.com/news/report/general-impression-that-opinion-polls-can-be-manipulated-sibal/20131109.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Many-agencies-manipulating-opinion-poll-projections-claims-sting-operation/articleshow/31013534.cms
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/video/2764415112001
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misuse_of_statistics
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/mhp-furious-over-opinion-poll-manipulation-claims.aspx?pageID=238&nID=62184&NewsCatID=338
+100 disturbed …right wing managed PR polls are the arse end of the dog influencing voter perceptions, discouraging people from genuinely voting and corrupting democracy
Current polls seem to show that Labour are losers so don’t vote for them. Just seems so wrong. Doesn’t fit with the mood that I see.
Brilliant. Thanks so much for taking the time to put this comment together.
Very disturbing re the experience you had with the pollers!
MMP Strategic voting?
While looking at figures of the 2011 election I was a bit disheartened by the large National majorities and the smaller Labour majorities until I realized that the so called left vote was often split between Green and Labour.
It does seem to me that party votes and list MPs aside, in some electorates the right wing candidate often slips in between a divided left.
I know some young people who give their electorate vote to a green candidate and their party vote to Labour. They don’t realize that while their party votes are effectual their electorate votes are ineffectual in the immediate election.
I also know of some farm workers who lean to the left but because they live in farmer dominated (National) electorates they believe they can have no influence so don’t bother voting at all, not yet understanding the importance of the party vote.
1.In Waitakere, Bennet with her majority of 9 would have been defeated if just 10 more voters had chosen Sepuloni.
3.In Tamaki Rukaurau 10,592 voted against ,Sharples and 7,120 voted for Sharples. The split ’left’ vote allowed him to win and support National.
4.In Ikaroa- Rawhiti , Labour’s Horomia romped in with a 6541 majority as apart from Mana’s 2484 votes, the left vote was not divided
5.In Te Tai Hauauru the combined vote of Mana, GP and Labour was 8732 and
Turia Tariana got 8433.
6. In Te Tai Tokerau where the vote wasn’t split Kelvin Davis wasn’t far behind the smallish 1165 majority of Hone Pani Tamati Waka Nene Harawira . (What a magnificent name)
7.In Te Tai Tonga there was a similar smallish majority (1475) for Labour’s Tirikatene and the yet Mana+GP vote was 3906.
8.Waiariki -10123 combined votes of the two purportedly left parties, Mana and Labour were more than Flavell’s 7651.
9.In Coromandel the Nat majority was 12,740 but the combined ‘left’ vote of Green and Labour, nearly 11,500 was hopelessly split at 5000+each.
10.In Ohariu Dunne got 14,357. The Labour and GP vote combined was 15,125.
11.In Waimakariri Cosgrove was beaten by Kate Wilkinson by 642 votes. The GP votes plus Labour votes were 17,342, Wilkinson’s 16,787.
12.In Christchurch Central, Wagner’s majority over Labour’s Brendon Burns was just 47 (yes 47) .Over 2000 went to the GP. (Incidentally ACT got a massive 110).
13. In Epsom it is transparently obvious that if Greens and Labour had voted strategically and voted National, their combined votes( 5991)would have obliterated John Banks false majority of 2261 and we’d never have seen a charter school. I agree that for left leaning people, doing this would probably be too hard to stomach. Dunno if I could do it.
There is also the other elephant.: the thousands and thousands who didn’t vote at all in 2011.
What can be done? Me.. I’ll be door knocking on the day.
If I were running a black ops rainbow alliance election campaign, I’d have adverts on TV promoting tactical voting.
DC appearing in turn with other opposition party leaders, having a cup of tea with them and the nation.
Party vote for either of us, but to get rid of the electorate nat mp or stop act and dunne etc… Vote for this candidate and so on until the message sinks home.
But I’m not running a campaign, so don’t hold your breath.
All it shows is that Maori parties of what ever hue are right leaning, always were. So lets be clear here. If Maori vote right then they have to live with the policies.
History has a lot to do with. What are the best gains that Māori MPs have made? Was that under left wing or right wing governments?
For treaty settlements, Maori have done better under National. As far as social policy, labour started well, but then has been slowly down hill. Not to mention the backstabbing by the last labour government. So on balance, both have been as bad as each other – why do you think a majority of maori have gone with NZfirst, the greens, maori party or Mana. The major parties have been, well, bloody awful.
Are you sure about that? Isn’t is a publicity stunt? Labor had also a plan to have all settlements arranged by a certain date. But it wouldn’t have included selling assets that all NZlanders have paid for. Social policy under National certainly is not a highlight given the proportion of Maori and pacific people showing in the statistics of the poorest in the Nation. What it also shows however is, that to my biggest disappointment, the Maori tribal hierarchy is worse than whites. How else can one explain that after decades of multimillion dollar payouts nothing has trickled down? So really there it is the meeting of the minds of the far right and Maoridom.
How can you say Iwi leadership is worse than whites – when the dominant ideological framework is white? How much of Paul Henry are you watching? And why you tethered to an outdated economic concept like trickle down theory?
Or do you want to talk about the Tainui settlement, the land and money – oh wait just under 1% of what was taken and they have your expectation to solve all the problems, with getting less than 1% of what was stolen back. Lets go positive shall we. Ngāi Tahu, or Kāi Tahu, have done well getting back a mere fraction of a percent of everything taken. Like having the most PHD’s of any Iwi, Yes – they pay fee’s – School support programmes to clothe, feed and provided supplies for all the tamariki. Massive investment into Christchurch after the earthquakes – especially housing.
OK not all good news, the virtual slave labour on board the sealord fleet is a bloody disgrace. But wait, the Iwi leadership is being held to account on that one.
+1 adam
Then why is it that the majority of poverty is in Maori households? Hasn’t the main argument been that the money that was paid back is to be used for an economic base for Maoridom? Decades later and nothing has changed. Sorry, but I am not falling for the political correctness that does not allow a voice of dissent in such matters. And do you mean that Iwi leadership is above reproach and all whites are bad? The framework is surely not white – I can 100%, what do I say 1000% reassure you. Too many people I know have to stay in line or are excluded on the base of race – and this means they are white or asian. All I see is a distribution of wealth within the Maori hierarchy that leaves the National Party with their policies in the dust. Sorry, but someone has to say it and I know it does not look good. But if Maori are serious with their assertion of being all that they have proposed, then somehow the results are not showing. So where are the facts – please no fiction, work in progress or consultants are working on it.
PS.: 1% of all that is there is, is still 100% more than most people in this country have. If Moari want to convert the country back to were it was, please tell us all. More than happy to move on, really.
This is why we need preferential voting in electorates or to get rid of electorates altogether.
DTB
Yep I’m thinking that too. Seems to me the one who gets the minority of votes slips through.
Oh I forgot in Auckland central, Jacinta Adern with 14321 votes missed out by 737 and yet the Greens vote was about 2,903.
Nats must be laughing…I’m not.
..but it does show that in spite of the nonsense polls the John Key government can be beaten by people thinking before they vote.
On point three Tāmaki Makaurau Jones never had a chance. And anyway, Shane Jones has proved he was more right wing than Pita. Is this vote labour, because we know best list? Wil labour voters in Waiariki vote for the Mana candidate? It seems to me there is a double standard at play here or is that just me?
It’s not just you. Labour still tends to act as if they are the left, and the others are at best support parties. It’s an attitude more suited to FPP.
I have been reading an article on Clare Robinson in ‘Your Weekend’ (The Press)…and what a contrast she is to Mihi Forbes ( also featured).
Mihi Forbes is widely regarded by professional journalist commentators as a thoughtful listener and very skilled interviewer. An experienced journalist she has some notable interviews and has done investigative journalism into some important and controversial issues …She works for Maori television and heads the programme ‘Maori Affairs’.
In contrast Claire Robinson seems to be a very shallow, self- aggrandising person who just lucked in to being a political commentator…”People would say it didn’t matter what I said as long as I came across as credible”
…She has a PhD in political advertising and a bachelor of design degree…(in this article there is a lot about Robinson’s art design creative abilities, multiple job experiences and her family credentials ( mother a feminist, father a political scientist, ex-husband High Commissioner to Kiribati…marriage breakdown…she took off with the chosen house painter….)
…In essence Claire Robinson is a self -styled right wing political commentator in ” Twitter world”
She met David Cunliffe in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs …and her biggest beef against him seems to be that he was ” married, and no one else was “…and he was ambitious in his career and “wasn’t interested in socialising”…Today “We’re friendly to each other. He knows I’ve always given him a hard time.”……”He’s had to learn on the job, which is never a good thing to do…and learn about it in the public eye.”
“If I had to write the perfect job description for me, I would write this sort of job”….(expounding her political views and tinkering with paint and pencils….she doodles in meetings and they’re very stylish doodles)
“Mihi Forbes is widely regarded by professional journalist commentators as a thoughtful listener and very skilled interviewer.”
On National Radio Media Report this morning they talked about a major review of Maori TV but the review will not be released until after the election. It is possible that Mihi’s great Native Affairs program will/might be closed in favour of a magazine type program. Implies that Mihi is too good at her job and has upset some senior Maori leaders.
Maori tv displeases the corporate iwi and hollowmen so they rigged the board and dropped in a new CEO.
This caused a director resignation over the process and his former employer to offer an insight on what this person was let go for but the board declined so they didnt risk his appointment with incovenient facts.
The new chief is a conflict monkey sent in to ‘realign’ and crash into the trouble makers making their tenure unpleasant. Nats want maori tv to be the same subservant outlet that tvnz and rnz are for them.
Act leader Jamie Whyte , in the aftermath of a widely pilloried speech about Maori privilege, went on Mihi Forbes’ ‘Native Affairs’ programme to explain himself ….and had to admit that he had never heard of whanau ora !….
“When you are going to be attacking race–based policies , you should know about the number one policy for the Maori party ,” Forbes says.
Maybe this is why the NACTS and their brown nosers could be keen to get rid of a seriously good journalist and her programme….she asks the questions which expose their arrogance and ignorance and incompetence…and is not a lightweight right wing PR flibbertijibbet …. masquerading as a journalist
A Labour Left coalition simply MUST win this Election !
Agree with all you say here Ckooky. I have always had the impression that much of the anti Cunliffe rhetoric has stemmed from Claire Robinson.
must-watch key interview on q&a..
(he does a great cornered-rat impersonation..)
..and he claims he is doing nothing more than clark did..
(..once again..confirming that internet/mana and the greens are the only ‘clean’ parties..
..the only parties able to be trusted to do the reforms needed..)
“once again..confirming that internet/mana and the greens are the only ‘clean’ parties..the only parties able to be trusted to do the reforms needed”
Pu, do list all “the reforms needed” so we can fact check for ourselves.
Make it a conclusive, once and for all type document, and just put it out there.
You may be correct, you might have missed a press release or something and labour (no pun) under misapprehension, or you might just be gassing from your head hole, but at least we’ll have a definitive list to decide who to trust, or not, and for what reasons.
lol…”great cornered-rat impersonation”…John Key is on the ropes
If JK is on the ropes, then Cunliffe just got knocked out.
“he does a great cornered-rat impersonation..”
It’s not an impersonation.
Unless he backed it up with documentation then all it proves is that John Key is spinning again.
“…doing nothing more than clark did…”
Well at least he admits it. His supporters can now follow his lead, saying he is principled, because honesty is the best policy is it not? And principles are good yes? Therefore he is good in all things. Because good and bad cannot co-exist. That would be unfair otherwise. Honestly admitting to your crimes negates the crime. Yes. That’ll be it. Because 1-1=0 and zero means nothing gained nothing lost = balance.
On Mediawatch..Labour has said they will establish (re-establish) a public broadcasting TV channel. I want that. Other countries do it easily.
+100
Actually I want that too – but I’m a greedy bugger. I want more than that. I want my children to have one too. One that is similar to the one only wealthy have (a la Kidzone – commercial free). I also want a channel that provides archive material that has been publicly funded, or that public funds have contributed to – which would otherwise have not been funded (a la Heartland).
And I’m super greedy. I want a channel that provides access to the NZ citizenry for other publicly funded enterprises such as NZSO, NZ Ballet, NZ Opera, live music and culture of all descriptions including new music and any and everything that receives funding through NZ on Air, Te Mangai Paho, Ministry for Culture and Heritage or any other public money, and which reflects local/regional views.
Since I’m super super greedy, I also want another radio channel that provides access to the many, for new music and arts and culture, AND publicly funded networking facilities for local iwi radio and the ability for them to express themselves to a wider audience.
Public Sphere and all that quaint sort of thing that’s relevant to the diversity of 4.5 million people.
+100…Once Was Tim….Yes, Yes, Yes!…maybe you can offer your services to the new Labour Left coalition Govt…sounds like you know what you are talking about!
Discourses of Rumi: a sample taken from Discourse four…
“…This is like the story they tell of a certain king. This king entrusted his son to a team of learned men. In due course they had taught him the sciences of astrology, geomancy and so forth so that he became a complete master, despite his utter dullness of wit and stupidity.
One day the king took a ring in his fist and put his son to the test.
‘Come, tell me what I am holding in my fist.’
‘The thing you are holding is round, yellow and hollow,’ the prince answered.
‘Since you have given all the signs correctly, now pronounce what thing it is,’ the king said.
‘It must be a sieve,’ the prince replied.
‘What?’ cried the king. ‘You gave correctly all the minute signs, such as might well baffle the minds of men. Out of all your powerful learning and knowledge how is it that this small point has escaped you, that a sieve cannot be contained in the fist?’
In the same way the great scholars of the age split hairs on all manner of sciences. They know perfectly and have a complete comprehension of those other matters which do not concern them. But as for what is truly of moment and touches a man more closely than all else, namely his won self, this your great scholar does not know. He pronounces on the legality or otherwise of every thing, saying. ‘This is permitted and that is not permitted, this is lawful and that is unlawful.’ Yet he knows not his own self, whether it is lawful or unlawful, permissible or not permissible, pure or impure.”
/facepalm
More ranting against the educated from what is, most likely, an uneducated dweeb.
Regarding manipulation of polls, please search for this article – The Guardian UK
theguardian.com, Monday 14 July 2014 19.22 BST
GCHQ has tools to manipulate online information, leaked documents show
Documents leaked by Edward Snowden reveal programs to track targets, spread information and manipulate online debates
and cunnliffe released the wow!-policy for the last week of the campaign..
..and it’s something dreamed up by parker..a state-investment thingy..
..and it’s probably a good idea..
..but does anyone think it will come within a bulls’ roar of getting the undecideds off the couch..
..and rushing to vote for labour..?
..really..?
Dunno, but it’s probably better than announcing compulsory vegan sausages.
dunno..!…arguable…
..the environment would do a quantum-leap from one of the dirtiest in the world..
..to one of the cleanest..
..’many a true word spoken in jest’..eh..?
or smoking vegan sausages
i guess key can use the word ‘henchmen’ so easily..
..because of his own long history of use of henchmen/women as detailed by/in ‘dirty politics’..
“..It is now used to generally describe any person with subordinate status derisively- while most often used specifically to a hired guard or minion of a villain or master criminal..”
..i thought a good villain-name for key cd be ‘mr smiley’..
..or ‘chuckles’..
Yep ‘henchmen’ seems a little batmanish. He is certainly Mr Durrkey to me.
short political-quizz:..(without running to party website..)
what are the top-three labour policies..?
..the ones that have grabbed yr imagination/attention..?
capital gains tax. will transfer investment from speculative to productive parts of the economy without destroying wealth (whereas speculation is fantastic for wealth destruction).
broadening the central bank’s mandate so that the government can more directly support export, which has been suffering for yearsnyears.
pumping up the minimum wage. because fuck yes. two names associated with pushing for higher wages – henry ford (look up “fordism”) and marriner eccles, former chairman of the ny fed. which is kind of america’s central bank, in a roundabout way.
Thanks. Can you name at least ten more?
Really enjoyed Media watch and interview with Independent Journalist about the need for better independent reporting etc.
Then came the news (note the order)
Sunday RNZ news 10:00
•Murray McCully wants to stop whaling
•Green will be highlighting the spying going on in NZ, Key says they have not been doing Surveillance
•John Kerry USA, soon terrorism will be everywhere
Who scripts the news at RNZ? Is this irony
Rnz was lost to the hollowmens once griffin was appointed, no change there.
The wheels have come off teamkey since dirty politics, expect the kitchen sink in the 6 days till the only poll that matters.
the MSM will shill their butts off and key will say all sorts of whacky stuff as answering questions and telling the truth has never been demanded of him so he will dig himself a deeper hole.
stay positive and focused as It was always going to be close. I have got as many expats to vote as possible, it was easy once I asked them how the whanau back home were doing under 6years of shonkey.
Lynn have you sorted out some sort of live chat app for election night? Trying to post comments would of course be woeful. IRC is probably the best way to go, with a web-app, so those of us that can can use an IRC client and therefore not need to rely on (or add more load to) the webserver.
Wow, IRC is still actually in existence.
Big time.
There have been comments in the media ( and all that early stuff) about letting the biggest party govern/Key being prepared to run a minority government.
Can anybody tell me is it possible for Key the day after the election to get in a car (sod any negotiating) and go up to the Governor general and go, “I’ll have a warrant to be the next prime Minister and I’ll run a minority government”. The GG then goes “for the sake of National stability I’ll do it” or some like rubbish.
Does this then mean that the other parties have to vote them down when parliament reconvenes and we have another election?
Or do we park Russell or Hone or someone down the end of the GG’s drive and phone them up if Key appears?
That is only possible if all other options have been exhausted. So the various permutations have to be tried/negotiated based on Party votes.
I guess if Labour gathered in Greens, NZF, Internet Mana, Maori Party, United Future, and the Civilians who together gained over 50% of the Party Vote, they can govern regardless of the National 45%, and other odd sods who offer a minority Government.
Yes that is what normally happens but what questions does the GG have to ask. If Key tries some sort of end run like this does GG have to contact Cunliffe Turei Norman and check they don’t have a bigger block?
Not sure I trust some of the leading players here?
The hopeful PM has to confirm they have the support of Parliament, and the GG has to be satisfied that they do (satisfaction can include a broad measure of things, such as whether the election was fair and free – if there are doubts, then the GG may refuse the hopeful PM until such concerns are resolved).
So yes, what you’re proposing is possible if the hopeful PM lied to the GG and the GG simply believed it (ie, ignored all media reporting that the hopeful PM did not in fact have a majority), however would never happen in practice because it would be embarrassing to the GG, the Queen, and the public of NZ to install a government that was subsequently defeated at the first motion of no confidence (which is the first motion voted on at the start of each new government).
So far as I understand things, the conventions are:
1. The PM and his ministers hold their warrants personally until they resign, whether there is an election or not.
2. Post-election, the carry-over govt is regarded as a caretaker administration until new arrangements are made (old ministers resign, new warrants issued to new ministers).
3. The GG “takes advice” from the caretaker PM about who will be the next PM and accepts his/her list of ministers and swears them in (issues their warrants).
4. The GG and the Cabinet, acting as an Executive Council, set the date for the next sitting of Parliament.
5. Parliament convenes, sitting as a Government and an Opposition (the Westminster system is technically only ever a two-party system: the political parties can shift from one side to the other at will without triggering an election).
6. If the Opposition thinks it can overturn the sitting Government, it can bring a Motion of No Confidence, moved by the Leader of the Opposition.
7. If the MNC is passed, the government resigns and the outgoing PM advises the GG to invite the mover of the MNC motion to form a government.
8. And then points 3, 5, 6, 7, repeat until either stability is achieved or it all becomes too much and a new election is called for.
The two flies in the ointment are that, firstly, it’s all done by custom/ convention (UNLESS the Acts establishing MMP set up new rules??), and secondly that the GG usually takes the advice of the PM, whatever it may be. Precedent exists for the GG to discard that advice (eg Whitlam’s dismissal in Aus), but if the PM chooses to gives bad advice for political advantage then the GG will usually follow it.
Generally it all sorts itself out in the wash and doesn’t need a new election, just some discipline and negotiation.
Thanks P. Wasn’t sure I trusted some of the leading players here to act ethically.
Won’t it come down to Peters? ie the only way there wouldn’t be a majority on one side or the other would be if NZF declines both of them.
Quite true, Weka, but it’s even more complicated than that. The MMP rules allow individuals, once in Parliament, to change their allegiances – the famous “waka-jumping” rule. It’s based on the old figment of the imagination under FPP that not parties but only individuals may be elected to Parliament, and they may then decide to align themselves with a political party. That’s why in the good old days Winston et al could change parties during a session without resigning, because they held their seats personally. Under MMP successful List candidates were given the same protection resulting in, for example, Brendan Horan being expelled from NZF but retaining his List seat as an individual (a mistake in the MMP List rules, in my opinion).
Even though we get a parliament elected by a tribal/ political party vote, party behaviour is still all by convention. JK raises the many-headed hydra image to frighten the faithful, but the truth is that (a) there are only ever two parties in parliament and (b) there are 120+ individuals who can align themselves whichever way they want to after they are sworn in. The good news is that this usually only happens at the fraying edges of the political parties. So far.
The possibility of a minority grouping reaching across the political party divide and inviting individuals from the other teams to come and play nicely and form a government with them is always a political reality. Depends upon the incentive, I suppose.
Fisheries ambassadorship, anyone? Or lovely baubles of office, perhaps?
It was mooted on either Q and A or Nation this morning – that Winston could do exactly what you refer to in your last para, and become prime minister !
Your para: “The possibility of a minority grouping reaching across the political party divide and inviting individuals from the other teams to come and play nicely and form a government with them is always a political reality. Depends upon the incentive, I suppose”.
I certainly don’t trust National, Act, UF, CCCP, and mP to act ethically.
disingenuous ? of course not, but I don’t think that was who they meant.
Nice photo of John key’s henchman/lackey.
Thank god for technological advances, otherwise Tony Abbott’s Liberal Party will have troubles running Parliament with all their members equidistant from each other – and doing it on less government funding: Welfare cut for terror suspects.
Joking aside, Abbott – like Key – continues to astound me when I think nothing that he does will surprise me again.
Like here the average punter in oz has little idea how owned the govt is by business interests as rupert controls a fair slice of media and reinhardt has a solid grip on fairfax ownership should she choose to go all the way.
abotts polling is bad but they dont care, getting the job done etc with turnbull paitently waiting in the wings when they need a new front next election. Expect more from tony he is far from done yet.
the wildcard is PUP, mining magnate clive palmers party who hold sway in the senate with senators like ricky muir and jacquie lambie take a seat and enjoy the show performed by its CT scripted actors.
Canada’s Conservatives have passed a bill giving foreigners the right to sue, in secret tribunals, to overturn Canadian law and First Nation treaties which might interfere their investments.
.
It’s official: Prime Minister Stephen Harper has approved the controversial Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA) today.
In a short, two-paragraph news release, International Trade Minister Ed Fast said the deal was now ratified. It will come into force on October 1, 2014, and will be effective for 31 years, until 2045.
The original investment protection deal — which treaty law expert Gus Van Harten said could be in violation of the Canadian Constitution — was quietly signed in 2012 in Vladisvostok, Russia, but was delayed for two years due to public outcry
[…]
First Nations argued that the deal was not valid, as it would violate section 35 of the Constitution requiring consultation over projects that could affect traditional territory. The Hupacasath First Nation in B.C. took the federal government to court last year over the FIPA deal, while citizen advocacy groups Leadnow and SumOfUs delivered 60,000 signatures from across Canada in opposition to the agreement. The court decision on the Hupacasath First Nation’s legal appeal is still pending, despite the ratification.
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/harper-oks-potentially-unconstitutional-china-canada-fipa-deal-coming-force-october-1
Gives an insight of what will happen if Key is re-elected and the TPP is signed.
Yup.
NSA and GSCB is being used for economic spying.
The new colonialism is based in finances and so that’s to be expected I suppose.
cool story bro.
Three questions for the Prime Minister.
If as you have stated, the GCSB drew up “mass protection ” programmes for NZers why did you veto it? Are we now “unprotected? And “unprotected” against what/whom?
Yep good questions and it will be interesting to see what they were proposing as these ‘mass protection’ programmes – we are now deep down the rabbit hole and the week ahead will be surreal and sickening as durrkey spins and slides.
If I were the cynical sort, I’d say that the metaphorical ink will still be dry on the documents ‘exonerating’ Key.
I think it was a journalist in Yes Prime Minister who asked “Is it true that the documents have yet to be released because the PM can only type with one finger?”
The PM’s manual –
THE GREASY POLE
"It is only totalitarian governments that suppress facts. In
this country we simply take a democratic decision not to publish
them."
"How to discredit an unwelcome report:
Stage One: Refuse to publish in the public interest saying
1. There are security considerations.
2. The findings could be misinterpreted.
3. You are waiting for the results of a wider and more detailed
report which is still in preparation. (If there isn’t one, commission
it; this gives you even more time).
Stage Two: Discredit the evidence you are not publishing, saying
1. It leaves important questions unanswered.
2. Much of the evidence is inconclusive.
3. The figures are open to other interpretations.
4. Certain findings are contradictory.
5. Some of the main conclusions have been questioned. (If they haven’t,
question them yourself; then they have).
Stage Three: Undermine the recommendations. Suggested phrases:
1. ‘Not really a basis for long term decisions’.
2. ‘Not sufficient information on which to base a valid assessment’.
3. ‘No reason for any fundamental rethink of existing policy’.
4. ‘Broadly speaking, it endorses current practice’.
Stage Four: Discredit the person who produced the report. Explain
(off the record) that
1. He is harbouring a grudge against the Department.
2. He is a publicity seeker.
3. He is trying to get a Knighthood/Chair/Vice Chancellorship.
4. He used to be a consultant to a multinational.
5. He wants to be a consultant to a multinational."
"To suppress an internal government report, rewrite it as
official advice to the Minister. Then it is against the rules to
publish it, so you can leak the bits you want to friendly journalists."
http://www.jonathanlynn.com/tv/yes_minister_series/yes_minister_episode_quotes.htm
thx Joe90 .. brilliant.
God stuff joe. Wonder if you have missed anything? Of course Key’s default setting is Stage four. Discredit the messenger.
Brilyant
Talking of henchman and, as he brought up the subject, who is John Key the henchman for?
What does this mean
there is total mention?
of course not but does it do mass surveillance on NZ citizens – that is the question/answer that is going to fuck you up key.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11324452
I presume it’s either typical slack speaking on Key’s part, or a bad transcription (probably both).
Probably what it should say is “there’s totally mention” or “there’s some mention”.
The quote is from this video clip: http://tvnz.co.nz/vote-2014-news/key-says-mass-surveillance-considered-but-rejected-6080078
It is completely accurate. In context, what Key is saying doesn’t even really make sense. It’s fairly clear what he’s *trying* to say, but as usual his slack speaking, muddled thinking and poor diction let him down.
Corin Dann:
But this was a huge issue at the time of this legislation and at no stage was there any mention that you were, that the GSCB was considering mass surveillance.
Key:
No, well, there’s total, there was total mention…
Seems like another lie from key really because ‘total’ is pretty definitive and in no way, shape or form was there ‘total mention’ that key and the GSCB were considering mass surveillance at the time of the legislation. Roll on Monday – in all its meanings…
Did he say who in his office was discussing it cos he does DO actual gcsb business does he, he delegates.
I’m not a crook?.
http://youtu.be/sh163n1lJ4M?t=28s
edit: total mention seems to be a social media tracking term
http://semphonic.blogs.com/semangel/2011/10/sampling-and-social-media.html
good name for a covers-band..
..john key and the henchmen..
John Key and the Total Mention
john key and the protectors..
john key and the ‘ackshully’s..
john key and the end of the day..
Anyone know where I can still find a video of NIcky Hager Publically speaking at the Mt Eden War Memorial Hall on the 27th August. Everywhere I go it says it is unavailable. Thanking you
I got a copy from the youtube one which is now gone. Have you tried asking here http://livenews.co.nz/ or asking at the Daily Blog?
Ben Uffindell writing ACT press releases?.
ACT is holding the Balance of Power
Dr Jamie Whyte, ACT Leader
11 am Sunday 14 September
Tasca Café, Newmarket, Auckland
ACT will hold the balance of power after the election on Saturday.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1409/S00316/act-is-holding-the-balance-of-power.htm
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BxUV8MTCEAMFbBu.jpg
“Are you completely nuts? If I’d fixed Christchurch CERA would’ve been wound up – I’d’ve had to go back to being a failed woodwork teacher.”
“…and this grouping of events between my hands is your political future…”
😀
“All right … it’s true… I ate Jason Ede (he was delicious, so tender and sweet)… but please, no more of that music.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B8jcKx8H_w
only one more sleep until utu-monday..
Be careful what you wish for, I think utu sunday has arrived
It’s striking how often the four anglophone Commonwealth countries are often having the same conversation at the same time.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/raising-minimum-wage-could-rescue-the-economy-don-pittis-1.2516796
ScottGN I liked this bit and wondered why the 3rd to last sentence isn’t used by David:
Canada: “They are supported by a very traditional market argument that says raising minimum wage results in fewer jobs and is thus bad for the wider economy. Of course, the extension of this argument is that no minimum wage at all would be even better for the economy. If you think that, it is time for you to emigrate. There are many countries with no minimum wage.
And look how well people in those nations do, eh.
On Q&A I thought Key looked serious and fluent and credible when talking to Corrin. Damn I thought!
Tonight on TV3 News he looked petulant, sulky and if one more question was asked of him he would have burst into tears. You know when someone struggles to contain their emotions their face muscles tremble and give you away.
The current issues are hurting him.
John Key does not like being criticised or exposed. He does not like losing. It’s what drives him and, I guess it has brought him “success”: success as he sees it. However, it’s also his Achilles heel. He just will not back down, even when the evidence is clearly against him.
He will keep on inventing lies… And he likes to rope others in… Like tucker…fletcher…
He’s certainly not maintaining the smiley friendly guy front that is part of the two track strategy.
If he is so certain that he is not lying, may be he should simply offer to take a lie detector test devised by Greenwald and be done with it.
‘MOMENT OF TRUTH’ INFO:
http://kim.com/
Fuck, fuck, fuckity, fuck fuck. I was pretty sure I was going to party vote GP, but I just watched Laila Harre interview Greenwald and Amsterdam and now I want to vote for her! She so should be in parliament. My heart says IMP, but my head says GP. I’ve never had a voting dilemma before. Anyone else not know what they are doing?
Split the difference and vote Labour?
Lolz, I don’t think so. I hope Labour do well, but I think we need a strong GP presence if we want to shift left.
Wishing I lived in a democracy where tactical voting was unecessary.
Quickie move and enrol in Helensville so you can vote for Harre?
haha, I did think of that. Bit of a long way for me though.
(I think it’s too late anyway, don’t you have to live in an electorate for a month to be able to vote there?).
Maybe STV would solve the problem. Mostly the dilemma is because I don’t know how everyone else is voting. With STV, it would matter would it? because my preferences would be ordered depending on what other people did too.
STV very much frees up voting for minor parties as your vote for them cannot be “wasted”.
This would also mean ACT and UnitedDunne would almost certainly win their electorates, too.
I think if we end up with 2 large parties on the left and 2 large parties on the right there will be a big appetite to change the way electorate voting works. But IIRC the MMP review recommended no changes, because people having a party vote and a candidate vote is already confusing enough as it is, without making the candidate vote into an STV.
Possibly one compromise would be to just to let people have 2 votes for candidates, with the candidate winning the most votes winning. It avoids a full-on STV ranking confusion, while still allowing more representation.
“I think if we end up with 2 large parties on the left and 2 large parties on the right there will be a big appetite to change the way electorate voting works.”
How come?
Because candidate voting is FPP – you just have to get the ‘most votes’, it doesn’t have to be anywhere near 1/2 of them.
If there were 4 roughly even sized parties, there could be some electorates where “the wrong party won” because the other bloc “split the vote”.
We’re already seeing it now with people voting for Greens candidates who realistically have 0 chance of winning, but in doing-so they hand the electorate over to National instead of Labour.
Laila Harre is pretty amazing. The senior Cabinet Minister that Labour never had.
Yip. Her stepping into the leadership of IMP was enough to shake my conviction for voting Labour.
Ultimately I gave up on IMP because they didn’t have any policies announced, and now that I’ve seen them I can’t say I’m super-thrilled with them either. They’ll have a lot more time to mature over this term and I’ll give them another chance next time.
+1
Yep STV would be a good move for the electorate vote: just rank your top three candidates 1, 2, 3.
I think party votes with ticks and candidate votes with numbers would be too confusing for a lot of people.
I think a reasonable compromise is 2 ticks for candidates, and 1 tick for party vote. Candidates still remains FPP and only a single candidate can win an electorate.
Either system would mean the phrase “two ticks for X” would no longer make sense, though.
@ CV
This has probably been talked about before. But what would be against local bodies using STV.? In theory it sounds useful for them, does it have fishhooks?
Some local bodies already use STV.
We use STV for a bunch of things down here in the Dunedin local elections, including for Dunedin City Council.
Where did you watch that interview, weka? Any link please?
Probably this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYEdaxbfpYc&feature=youtu.be
Thanks very much. Laila does such a nice interview. Three people of great integrity and intelligence on that episode.
Here you go clem
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYEdaxbfpYc
oh snap – great minds and all that 🙂
Ha!
Thanks to you too. I enjoy these ‘Not The Six O Clock News’ from Harre. What a great idea! Not sure how many people watch these. I hope a lot of voters do.
I would love to see Laila Harre as the Governor General or the President of New Zealand one day.
Not bad, but Minister in charge of the SIS and Intelligence Services plz
Me too. I am having trouble choosing between Mana and the Greens. Every time I make a decision, the benefitting party says or does something I don’t like. Mana is slightly ahead at the moment.
I have a neighbour who is not sure if she should vote for Labour or the Greens!
Just watched the clip below of Susan Wood interviewing RN & MT from the Greens.
I honestly cannot believe the conduct of Susan Wood? At every opportunity she had to point out how badly Labour are doing in the polls, she even said ‘Labour are tanking’ with a smug grin on her face.
Absolutely disgraceful TVNZ! Anyone with half a brain, including Susan Wood, knows that the polls are all over the place, often do not include undecideds and in some cases appear to be complete bullshit. Yet Susan Wood does her best to suggest that National have it in the bag? Bias much!
Yet more evidence that MSM are in need of a serious clean up.
http://tvnz.co.nz/q-and-a-news/largest-party-gets-pm-everything-else-table-green-co-leaders-video-6080063
The fact that the polls are crap is the elephant in the room that the MSM are doing their best to avoid.
If the outcome of the election is sufficiently different from what polling suggests, then I think we may see a bit of a wake-up call for the media, as well as calls for the polling companies to explain themselves and reform their methodologies.
You could stop watching the puppets involved with the news as I have done. If you ever caught Thunderbirds you might get a whiff of connection with the actors there. Lady Penelope would be much more lively and stylish than Susan Wood.
I am by no means sure that Susan Woods has half a brain.
This is a link to a ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ video of Key before the last election. As he’s asked a very embarrassing question, his smiling face transforms as he looks down into something hateful. It’s the absolute opposite of the charming front he usually strives to effect. Such a pity that few of the Nats’ believers would ever have seen this, the real face, of their golden boy.
The video starts to get interesting from about 1 min 11 secs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxTmebVRh9I
An excellent very short summary of the core allegations in Dirty Politics. h/t @LostArcNZ
https://twitter.com/LostArcNZ/status/511090593879973888/photo/1
Polls huh.
Commenting on a new ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph which puts Yes at 54 per cent and No at 46 per cent – and an Opinium poll for the Observer which puts Yes at 47 per cent and No at 53 per cent – Blair Jenkins, chief executive of Yes Scotland, said: ‘The new ICM poll gives Yes a record eight-point lead, which is hugely encouraging. Meanwhile, Opinium puts Yes behind, but just by six points.
http://www.yesscotland.net/news/new-icm-poll-puts-yes-8-points-ahead-polls-all-show-everything-play-countdown-referendum
I think in terms of turnout, the YES vote will be more energised and they will have it. And a friend pointed this out to me: we will know the Scottish result as we turnout to vote…if they vote for a change I think it will push us over the line too 🙂
The Scottish Vote results will start rolling around noon on Friday NZ time. Get your hoarding removals done first: then start the celebrations!
Scottish referendum ,
I feel this has been poorly thought out and what ever happens the result will divide the Scottish people . The polls suggest a close result which will leave large numbers of scott’s in a state of despair which ever way it goes .
The vote to change should require a much higher % of the population to support leaving , imagine if 49% vote to stay , that’s trouble ahead , perhaps civil unrest .
“imagine if 49% vote to stay , that’s trouble ahead , perhaps civil unrest ”
….that view sounds a little like the ‘no’ compaign scare tactics
‘civil unrest’ tends to be associated with people who are poor, powerless, unemployed, marginalised, have nothing to lose, …
If the ‘yes’ vote wins there will still be a democratic election process in Scotland. And you can be sure that most Scots will want Scotland to succeed even if they voted ‘no’
Scots have been thinking and debating the pros and cons of being an independent nation for a very long time and whichever way the vote goes will not turn on each other